Haute Flash Blog

It’s 2008. I’m trying not to be trite by listing any lame New Year’s resolutions, but for heaven’s sake, I’m turning 50 this year! My catch-phrase for The Haute Flash Site is “women shouldn’t sweat getting older”. I do not want to sweat getting older. It beats dying, and I don’t want to be one of those women with a face lift-induced expression of perpetual surprise. Still, it’s a bit startling to discover that the lines in the corners of my eyes, that I’d thought might be smeared makeup, are wrinkles.

I haven’t completely recovered from adolescence, and here I am, wrinkly. On the other hand, my little mom, who turns 86 this year, doesn’t fret about her wrinkles. For her, the issue is the loss of dear friends. The past three years have been the worst for Mom, as many of her dearest friends have left this life. She reads the obituary section of the Denver Post daily, just to see if she recognizes any of the names, whose memorial services or funerals are taking place.

Over Thanksgiving, my oldest nephew taught my mother to text message. Brendan has the patience and ability to simply complex issues for an 85-year-old. As a result of Brendan’s stellar efforts, my mom now sends me daily text messages, telling me she is awake, but going back to sleep, that she has returned from the grocery store (or “the market”, as she often calls it), or that she’s watching Jeopardy and will call me when the show is over.

As I get closer to 50, I know I will think about this milestone – A LOT. For inspiration on how to embrace life and how to not sweat getting older, I read the latest text message from my mom. It reads, “Hip hip hooray im up and ready for another day” (She doesn’t know how to add punctuation or to capitalize. I’m hoping Brendan can teach her during spring break….)