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Shock and Awe! I Survived Long Enough to Become Someone Else’s “Old Lady”
Strategies for enlisting courageous, productive and involved elders who exemplify how it’s done.
“Do you think of YOURSELF as ‘an old lady’?”
“Yes, Jane, I do,” I say to my good friend of 60 years. I suspect that’s not the answer she’s hoping for. Who wants to see herself as old?
I started picking up “good” much-older women — my old ladies — before I turned 50. Now I’m old enough to be one.
“My friend Frederick recently told me I was his ‘old lady’,” I also tell Jane, “and I loved it.”
Once I got over the shock and eased into the idea.
It happened at Frederick’s 35th birthday celebration. Admittedly, I stood out, being the only grandma in the group. It didn’t help that Frederick’s mostly Millennial friends teased him about being “old.”
“Fred’s told me so much about you,” several said. “You’re that Melinda!” That’s me, living history — the hip old lady who danced at Studio 54 in her youth.
