Summary
HITTING 50 was a terrible shock. It seemed such a big number. Half a century. It was when my grandmother announced her life was pretty much over (she lived well into her 70s) and slid into wearing her wraparound pinny all day long, devouring jam tarts and reading Mills & Boon.
Even my mother stopped dyeing her hair, let the grey show through and readied herself for retirement, moaning: 'I'm 50 now, you know. I must expect to slow down.' Happily for me, there was a whole new set of far more positive role models who preceded me when I reached that age. They were women who seemed to embrace their age, did not expect that being post menopausal meant an end to active life, and who had no intention of pretending they were anything other than mature middle-aged women with lots of good sense and wisdom to offer. Judi Dench took over the role of M in the James Bond movies and was given wonderful lines, accusing Bond of being a sexist dinosaur. The American journalist Gloria Steinem was photographed in her bath when she reached the big 5-0 and was told she didn't look 50. 'This,' she pronounced, 'is what 50 looks like.' None of them, though, would have argued that 50 was the new 30, with its implication that somehow it's youth that is valued at any price.See the full content of this document
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No Way Am I Bride of Frankenstein [Eire Region]
I have never understood why a...
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