justplainbil

Just Plain Bill

“Uncle Bill, you have a Valentine on your face!”

You may have heard of the saying “Out of the mouths of babes oft times come gems”. Well, that came to mind when my young niece, Laura, visited me one summer over 25 years ago. She was six years of age, and was a true bundle of joy.

We were finishing breakfast and out of the blue, Laura said, “Uncle Bill, you have a Valentine on your face.” Her comment took me by surprise and I really didn’t know what to say in response. So, as a good uncle should, I just said, “that’s nice.”

It was a few hours later, when I’d finished shaving that I did notice that as my hair was slowing starting to recede on either side of my forehead, there was a “peak” forming at my scalp line.

Now days we have Wikipedia to help us with a formal definition: “A widow's peak is a V-shaped point in the hairline in the center of the forehead. Hair growth on the forehead is suppressed in a bilateral pair of periorbital fields. Normally, these fields join in the middle of the forehead so as to give a hairline that runs straight across. Widow's peak results when the point of intersection on the forehead of the upper perimeters of these fields is lower than usual.”

After not seeing my niece for over 30 years, we were reminiscing and I asked her if she remembered what she said over the breakfast table many years ago. She became just a tad embarrassed and said, “no, did I really say that?” I reassured her that I thought it was cute and I was glad that she felt comfortable enough to make that kind of a comment.

Since that time at breakfast many years ago, my hair line has continued to recede – till it’s all gone – and I kind of miss those days of when I proudly had “a Valentine” on my face.