THE BEAUTY IN HER WRINKLES

by: Norberto Betita

Beauty has its own expression. To one it may be sadly described as ugly. To some it may be beautiful. And to others it may be superlatively expressed as exquisite loveliness. Yet whatever depiction we give of one’s countenance, the old saying remains true, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

One Sunday at home after our Church services while waiting for our dinner food to cook my beloved wife told us that one sister expressed concern and told her that her face seemed to have lost a bit of glow. The sister must have observed the wrinkles lining on her face. My dear Letty seemed to be worried also about what she heard, although I sensed that her concern is more about her health rather than her wrinkles. I have my hands gently touched her face and told her in the presence of one of my daughters, “You need not have to worry about your wrinkles for to me it signifies and epitomize an even greater beauty than your youthful loveliness of long ago.” I made her understand that her wrinkles symbolizes the long years of our loving relationship; years of upholding marital covenants; millions of hours and extended nights of rearing raising and fostering five children; long years of uninterrupted and continuing service in the church and Kingdom of God; prolonged years of adversities and afflictions, depressions and despair; drawn out journey under sunshine and shadows, joys and sorrow. Such an account paints a picture of exquisite beauty and loveliness made abstract by the lines of a wrinkled face.

This early dawn of October 30, 2013, as I prayed especially for my dear Letty on her 64th birthday, tears just freely flow as thoughts of her devotion and divine affection as a wife and mother to our children once again opened a clear reflection of the wonderful memories of those 39 years we shared together. Even in the dark precincts of our living room where we sleep, I got a glimpse of the beauty in her wrinkles as I look at her soundly asleep in the stillness of dawn. I should have kissed her with an awakening word of love. But I rather kept my anxiousness until three of our cellphones rang with birthday messages from our daughter Kathleen who lives in Cebu City. Then she was awakened, and that was when I expressed my sincere love and greetings with a tender kiss and a firm hug.

In the morning of her birthday we went to church for a spiritual enhancement program of one entire district of Department of Education teachers in which I was to preside and speak. In attendance were approximately 140 teachers mostly women. I assigned Letty to give a message and I was touched as she again talked about the role of mothers and wife. Again I have my eyes filled with tears as I express gratitude for her expressions of love and announced that even on her birthday she still have time to be in service to God and fellowmen.

We are in the sunset of our lives and our physical health and vigor are no longer as sturdy and resilient as they were in years precedent. However, I felt that the bonds that unite our love for each other as husband and wife have grown ever stronger and robust as to withstand every wind of adversity along our eternal journey.

I am reminded of the thoughts I wrote about her on mother’s day. “I saw the divine attribute of motherhood in my dearest wife. In the confines of our home and family, she is the first nursery or kindergarten teacher helping each of our children to identify colors, letters, numbers, etc. She is the first school teacher, teaching our children to first read and write and do arithmetic. She is the first nurse to respond in times of sickness. In the playing fields of the home, she is the dearest playmate. In times of emotional, physical and spiritual anxieties, she is the first to provide refuge. Despite cobwebs, termites and crowded rooms, she makes our children feel comfortable at rest. She is the first to cry when consequences of failed decisions roll up amongst our children. Her loving arms are always extended to the prodigals. Not once did she buy a new dress for herself, but for her children. Her selfless love and service to our children make her role even more divine.”

On Valentine’s day of last I wrote, “As I awaken my dearest Letty on this cold and drizzling dawn by a hug and sweet kisses for the Valentine’s Day, she kissed me back and in a tone attuned to the silent breeze of daybreak expressed her love and said, “this is no different day, for everyday with you is very special to me.

“Not a hundred bouquets of red roses can equate such wonderful inspired words of fondness and affection from one whose devotion and love knows no bounds. In years of marital companionship love, trust and respect had become clasping straps that bind our hearts together as we go along the complexity of life’s obstacles and the deepest pit of trials onward to an enduring relationship.

"In reflections of the wonderful memories in which our love for each other was richly endowed, I am reminded of the literary masterpiece of the legendary Shakespeare. These I would like to quote and dedicate on this Valentine’s Day to my dearly beloved Letty and to my fair daughters who are also trying to walk the pathway their mother walked:

Sonnet 116: “Let me not to the marriage of true minds”
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove;
O no! it is an ever fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wondering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
(William Shakespeare, 1564-1616)

The beauty in her wrinkles is and will be enhanced as the lines are increased by her enduring journey in mortality. Until the timeless origin of her pre-mortal beauty blooms back with brilliant glow into eternity.