Old ladies...Revolt

I'm about to revolt. My avatar is coming out of retirement.

I'm fighting mad at the portrayal of  the women of 60-100  in most novels.

I'm tired of the image of women 60 and up portrayed in books as unattractive and uninvolved. They sit around, do nothing or if it is something it is designed to make their children's lives a challenge. 

The women I know are nothing like that. 

May and another friend who wouldn't want her name mentioned have walked the 500-mile Camino de Santiago pilgrimage through Northern Spain and earned their shells for doing so.

She's also gone to Sarajevo and used her professional massage skills on men and women who are still suffering the effects of  the war in the last century. And she's become an accomplished maker of stained glass.

There's Sonja, who at 80 still teaches, a woman's whose intellect dwarfs mine and her knowledge of the world is such she can rattle off tribes in different places of Africa, can tell you exactly what happened in a war held in medieval times, the players, the underlying reasons, and what the long term effect was.

Or C. who at 70 something has a body that would garnish whistles from construction workers and by reputation still hits a mean tennis ball several times a week.

There's P, who although on the younger side in her 60s has started to paint and has held exhibitions with sales. She still may not think of herself as a real artist, but she is.

And I'm not putting down those women who were and are housewives as a profession. It is a life choice that is often put down, but doing it well is an art. Nor does it preclude them being interesting people. I will swing my sword in  honour of them.

One woman, I know,  is about to jump on a plane to fly to Dubai to help her daughter while her grandchild is born. Older women do have the time to help the next generation or to help in general and do in many ways.

Another, a retired teacher of the deaf spent Thanksgiving in New York with her pregnant daughter suffering from a cold. She is now back in her native Toulouse. She's a woman where music is a major part of her life.

My talented mother-in-law in her 90s designs quilts that are warmer to sleep under by their beauty. 

Or Susan T. who is a stylish 80 year old traveling the world teaching writing.

If anyone thinks these women stand out...they are wrong. They are the norm, but their stories don't make it into the average novel.

So any writers reading this, please, please make your older women real people, people who still have interesting things to do and say. And non-writers, why not take an older woman to lunch and listen to her stories.

They have stories of life, love, adventures that have brought them wisdom. And in that wisdom they have learned to take time and enjoy each moment.

Rocking and enjoying the sunset at the end of a fulfilling day can be wonderful too, it's just not all we older women are capable of doing.