“SO, if you have a grandma, thank the Good Lord up above and give grandmamas hugs and kisses for grandmothers are to love. Funny, you don’t look like a grandmother.” – Lois Wyse
The most invisible person on the street is an old woman, what a bittersweet tragedy, yet Victor Hugo believed “if you want to civilize man, start with his grandmother”
We will always be grateful to our grandmothers for many reasons. For what we see them to be, for the loveliness they have been, and for the good and essence we see in them.
You felt a deep respect, even reverence, for you had seen her meet tragedy with resilience, when she had to give back a father, a husband or a child…and gain nobility. For she is compelled to know that the seeds of value sown had been winnowed, and that is her prize.
For no matter how old a grandmother is, she watches her middle-aged children for signs of improvement, she never outgrew her burden of love and to the end, she carries the weight of hope for those she bore. She watches enchanted and anxious, half expecting that the newborn grandchild will make the world a little better and bring tranquility to the human spirit; having shared its fragility, its resiliency, who never asked for proof or expression of affection. She was always there, for you and for her grandchildren, to let them be. Even her immoderate neatness is another vice of age.
What makes her more special is that she is now completely relaxed with a delicious feeling on indolence that was never enjoyed in her earlier years.
She had been a part of nature, a living part with blood softly coursing through her veins. The future still exists for her, but not to worry about.
There are countless physical pleasures of age besides dozing in a rocking chair. Sometimes, they can make themselves grotesque by their efforts to simulate former charm—by being overdressed, over jeweled, over made up (as my colleagues would talk about this fossil in wet whispers), they too, do fun gossip, you know.
The vanity of older women is simply to explain and condone. With less to look forward to, they yearn to be recognized for what they have been. After all, being admired and praised is a compensation of age. Why shouldn’t the, almost very old, have more than the share of others, when honor costs very little.
They have experienced the rewards and challenges for themselves, perhaps it is time to take a refreshing look at the broad spectrum issues of aging, in a society that glorifies youth.
By the middle of next month here in Southern California, Ms. Mildred B., an intrepid but gracious trailblazer, will lead the Fil-Am community as they bring together a most gratifying joy to celebrate and evoke the beauty, honor and courage of women, living in their later years. Their endearing merits, their moments of joys and passions found in the rich and varied world of midlife and beyond; it will be a day of exciting glimpses into the lives of older women in all its honesty, and purity of truth as we really know them, through ourselves.
Here’s to Joie de Vivre!
