by Jane Samuel
Years ago as I held my new daughter in my arms, feeding her in the dark of our bedroom in the hopes that her fretful, busy body would settle into sleep, my heart welled with emotions and my mind turned to the woman who birthed this child. Tears streaming down my cheeks, I thought about the pain a woman must face in the giving away of her offspring. […]
by Karen Hug-Nagy
When I was in my twenties and thirties, the thought never crossed my mind that by the time I reached my mid-forties, I would be hauling kids around in a Honda Odyssey. While I never owned any sleek sports cars, my Ford Explorer was dedicated to weekend road trips in the country and taking the dogs for a ride. […]
by Barbara Hannah Grufferman
(Dear Reader, I stumbled on this post having recently discovered the incredible power of olive oil, myself. In fact, I swear by it. I eat it and use it in a multitude of ways. So does Barbara. So, after contacting her, we discovered a clearcut connection. This is the first of what we hope will be many of her writings about over-50 living.)
Interesting fact about turning 50: Things change surprisingly fast.
For example, everything’s just a tad bit … drier. My hair, skin, eyes and, umm, other places, too. […]
by Vivian Diller
When Obama turned 50 in August, warring political parties and world leaders paused to congratulate him. Thousands of fundraisers in his hometown of Chicago sung “Happy Birthday,” and his two daughters left summer camp for Camp David for a more intimate celebration. But among the outpouring of well wishes were warnings too. Turning the big 5-0, he was told, meant that things would go downhill from there — as if he didn’t have bigger downturns to worry about! […]
Len Filppu
About 11 years ago, my wife and I joined another pregnant couple for a snack after our pre-natal class. They were a typical demographic of this class… young, bright-eyed and fresh, unwrinkled, unworn and eager to learn what lay ahead in parenthood. Their youth and enthusiasm unnerved me because I was then 49 years-old and facing fatherhood for the first time. I ordered coffee and cherry pie a la mode. […]
by Cyma Shapiro
I’ve withstood the ravages of time: I have not yet been called “Grandma,” am still courted by those younger than I, and I still do not get the looks that others often get (“others” with gray hair, wrinkles, and sagging bodies). So far, I’m sitting like the Cheshire Cat, grinning from ear-to-ear about my little dirty secret. (You know, the one about my real age).
However, I do believe that it is all about to change. (Uh-OH!) […]
by MeiMei Fox
What’s Love Got to Do with It?
Yesterday I was describing to a wise older friend my emotional ups and downs of the past month as I’ve gone through the process of freezing my eggs. “There have been many times in the five years that have passed since my divorce when I felt like a failure for not having a family of my own,” I told her. “This egg freezing process has forced me to confront the self-doubts that have hung around in the shadows: ‘What’s wrong with me? I screwed up. I’m a loser for being 37 and childless and alone.’ […]
I have my foster parenting classes this weekend. I do not want to talk about my fear. I do not want to make those feelings bigger and more real by giving them life and breath. Yes, they are there. […]
by Jane Samuel
Sometime in the fall I missed my call to duty. The reminder letter came reminding me that I was due for my annual mammogram. But I thought, or maybe hoped, that I wasn’t due for another six months. Seriously, it seemed like just a few months ago I had been there. So I put the letter aside with plans to call and confirm it was indeed time. But time got away from me and before I knew it Spring was knocking on the door and my doctor was asking me why I hadn’t had my mammogram in the fall. Ooops. […]
by Andrea Lynn
My brother and I are only 21 months apart, so for most of our lives, he went first and I followed soon after. School, swimming lessons, learning to drive, off to university. I`d watch him go, and take mental notes, and I`d be along, two years later. We were a little competitive, but different enough in interests and personalities that it never got out of hand. I confess that when we both graduated and started our first jobs, we compared salaries for a while. I`d be ahead by a few thousand, and then he`d catch up. But then he had a period of unemployment and comparisons became unseemly – good thing, because now I`d have to double my pay to get anywhere near his. While he was unemployed, he went back to school to get his executive MBA, to add to his engineering degree. Which was, as it turned out, a sound financial decision. […]