As children, we come into this world blissfully innocent and unaware of all the potential insecurities that come with adolescence and adulthood.
As we grow out of childhood, however, many of us are affected by peer pressure, and begin to develop anxieties and poor self-esteem, as we saw with this poor young woman who was placed on a diet at just 4 years old.
Fortunately, as we reach middle-age and our golden years, the insecurity starts to wane.
Still, it’s hard to leave all of your self-image worries in the past, and many women find that, even as other self-esteem issues fade, new ones surface.
For example, lots of older folks become embarrassed by their hands, as age adds spots, wrinkles, and veins, in a very visible record of time’s progress.
It’s easy to want to hide those signs, but we should all remember that there’s a great reason to be proud of your hands as you age: They tell your whole life’s story!
One woman made that powerful realization when it came time to paint her nails; read on below for the heartwarming details!
A nursing aide named Brandalyn Mae Porter, who works with elderly folks, recently took to Facebook to share an incredibly sweet post about one of her residents.
It all started when the elderly woman, a new resident in the nursing home, got a welcome-home manicure from Porter.
They were chatting while the lady's nails were prepped, and when Porter asked her what color she wanted, the senior woman responded, "Clear."
"I asked her why she wanted clear," Porter wrote, "And she said, 'My hands are ugly, I don't want to draw attention to them.'"
"I then carefully responded with, 'Your hands tell the story of your life. They tell the story of love, of care and adventure. These hands have touched and held things that most people can only wish to one day.'
And with that, she went with the color pink for her nails.
Sometimes what we are so insecure with, others find beauty in."
The sweet photo and the story behind it immediately went viral, garnering nearly 700,000 likes on the Love What Matters Facebook page, and around 120,000 shares.
Most poignant of all were the comments, many of which were from readers inspired to share similar stories.
For instance, one woman explained that she had recently painted her grandmother's nails, and her grandma chose flashy gold colors, in keeping with her "strong-spirited, feisty" personality.
Others chose to reflect the theme of a life well-lived with beautiful photos of generations of women's hands, all brought together.
In this picture, a family assembled a chronology of hands, one for each living generation.
Clockwise from the bottom-right, it goes from great-great-grandmother, to great-grandmother, to grandmother, to mother, to baby.
Many of the folks commenting on Porter's photo had strong emotional responses to the image.
In many cases, the sight of these hands, that had been through so much, brought up memories of their own beloved mothers and grandmothers who had passed on.
This photo, for instance, was posted with the caption, "My mom passed in February. To me her hands were always so beautiful. I would give anything if I could hold those hands one more time."
It just goes to show that, even as our hands age, and gain lines and wrinkles, they remain beautiful.
It's a good reminder to all of us that, no matter how old we get, and how 'ugly' our hands look in our own eyes, they are lovely and precious to someone else.
More importantly, they're a living record of a whole life well-lived!
If you agree that the oldest hands are also the most beautiful, make sure to SHARE this sweet story with friends and family!
