Fifty and Fired

Spoiler alert: this is not a story suitable for a Nancy Meyers movie.

I am a big fan of Nancy Meyers and her movie Something’s Gotta Give was such an inspiration.

The idea of being a fifty something successful woman with the beautiful beach house was very appealing. And, at forty nine, I was getting closer.

I didn’t have the beach house, but I was at the peak of my professional and academic career. I had financial stability, was looking for a bigger apartment and planning to celebrate my fiftieth birthday in London with my daughter. But, four days before I turned fifty, I was fired.

To say that I was in shock would be an understatement. I was shattered, destroyed and unable to react for weeks. The London trip was cancelled and so was I.

My dismissal was one among thousands in the middle of a massive layoff decided by a new government in Argentina. People offered kind words but no help. Nobody wanted to get involved. I was left on my own.

I lost all sense of identity and belonging.

Even the smallest aspects of my life were affected. To give you an example, up to that moment, and since I was a teenager, I liked to have breakfast on my own while reading the papers and listening to Joni Mitchell. It was the most important moment of my day. I didn’t use an alarm clock; I got up when I heard the sound of the paper at my door. That changed. I couldn’t read the papers anymore, because most of them were in favour of the layoffs and the rest kept silent. And that hurt.

The funny thing is that as soon as my dismissal became effective I was offered a job by the same people that had fired me. But, and here is the twist, with half of my previous salary and in a precarious condition. I said yes. You must wonder why.

First, I wanted to show continuity in my career.

Second, I had a daughter in College to support.

And third, and most important, I wanted to regain control. I wanted to decide how and when to leave. I knew it was going to be difficult, but I just needed to wait for the right opportunity to appear. A year and a half later I received the perfect job offer and I presented my resignation with immediate effect. They were taken by surprise but could do nothing because I didn’t have a contract. Their mistake.

My new position was very good, even better that the one I had before being fired, but something was missing. I got back my dignity but not the joy.

By the time the pandemic arrived, I was already familiar with online courses. I had taken one on Literature and Mental Health organized by the University of Warwick just after my dismissal. During lockdown I participated in various reading and creative writing groups and I studied Literary Translation. Without even noticing, I was getting far from Law and closer to Literature.

Last year, when things were slowly going back to normal, an election affected my working situation again. This time they didn’t fired me, but they wanted to transfer me to another position. I didn’t agree with the change; so I decided to quit and join my daughter in Paris, where she was studying.

So far it hasn’t been easy. Moving to France can be challenging, to say the least.

Some weeks ago I went to the hairdresser and asked for a “frange à la Parisienne”. Apparently, my French is not very Parisian and, to my horror, I ended up looking like a member of an eighties music band.

I was a teenager during the eighties, and my dream was being a writer and living in Paris.

Magically, I am now living in the middle of the 16 arrondissement, looking eighteen again.

I studied Literary Translation as a hobby, but last February I read a novel, and I found myself thinking: here is a book I want to translate.

I contacted the author, wrote a translation sample and I am in the process of looking for a publisher.

Maybe I was wrong, and with a bit of editing, this could be the script for a Nancy Meyers movie. I like the idea, because it guarantees a happy ending. The single mother and successful lawyer who lost her job just before her fiftieth birthday, and after a lot of sorrow, and some funny moments too, becomes a writer and translator in Paris.

I know only one thing for sure: now I am the one taking the decisions. I will never give that power to another person again. Not even for the movie.

I want to be played by Cate Blanchett and fell in love with Keanu Reeves. This is non-negotiable.