From the Mature: Age Is Fixable

It’s beauty or it’s not beauty. That’s it.

This article was originally published in the March 2015 issue of Vancouver Magazine.I was an attractive woman. In my 20s, I modelled. My mother was very fashion-conscious and also very critical of appearance, and I think I have some of that — not to the degree my mother did, but I certainly had vanity. Modelling focuses you on your appearance. It’s just one side of a person, of course, but it was a side that was important to me.I don’t feel any different today, but then the mirror starts giving a different picture. It’s depressing to feel so young but what you see doesn’t reflect that. That’s not your face you’re looking at. Not the one you remember, anyway.Things droop. I know it happens. But I didn’t like looking older than I felt; I wasn’t prepared. Everything was going down. My right eyebrow was sagging lower than my left. The corners of my mouth were turning down. My neck was starting to sag. I looked like I was unhappy all the time, and that wasn’t the case! I’m very youthful, very active. I think I should look the way I feel.My friends told me I shouldn’t bother because I looked fine, but I come from that family that is highly critical of ourselves. It’s a perfectionist thing: it’s beauty or it’s not beauty. That’s it.You hear horror stories about what happens to people who go in for facial reconstructive surgery — it can go really wrong — but I just had a lot of faith that it would be done right. So I went in and said I wasn’t happy, that I wanted those things fixed. The doctor was very honest about what he could do and what he couldn’t. I had a facelift, a brow lift, and an eyelid lift — blepharoplasty. It was cutting above the eye and right underneath the lower lashes.I didn’t know if any of my friends had also done procedures. Did I tell them about mine? Absolutely. I have never been shy about that. It’s just the kind of person I am. I’m pretty open about things — I’ve always been a person who was forthcoming about what I think, and that’s why, when I realized there was something I didn’t like and I knew I could do something about it, it was just a matter of going ahead with it. That comes from having a bit of an engineering mind, I believe. There was a problem that could be fixed.Nobody can tell I’ve had work done. I have to explain it to them; they don’t see it. Yes, I have some scars, but they’re right in the crease behind my ears. No one looks there anyway.As told to Petti Fong<< BACK TO MENU