When I joined the local Seniors’ Centre after retirement, I met many new women and men through the local clubs and activities. This is a place for strong, vital people who want the stimulation and surprises an active life still offers to those who seek it. They are interested and interesting.
The women are feisty. I put it down to having a lifetime of succumbing to other’s needs and demands, always playing second fiddle, and denying their own requirements and desires. Now, at this time of their life, they find themselves released from all those pressures and they aren’t going to do it anymore. This is a time for them.
The men seem chilled, calm. Perhaps they, too, are tired of life’s demands on them to support, guide, lead, be the boss, the one in charge. They are glad to release the reins of power to another. This is a time for them.
Our twilight years offer us a freedom from all the duties and obligations we have had for most of our lives. Children are grown, the nest is empty; jobs are complete, retirement beckons. This is a time for us, a time for women and men to live their best lives. We still have time.
Just found you, Barbara, through an article in the Seniors’ Centre for Excellence newsletter written/compiled by Glynis Belec, out of Drayton.
Loved your story about ‘it’s not home’ and decided to look further into you.
This particular blog post hit home as you described the ‘feisty senior women’ you’ve met at seniors centres. I have noticed them, too, and enjoy them so much. Then I realized that I am one, too !
I am still living with my husband, but since his retirement, I have come out from under my ‘cloak of duty’ … but no more ! I became brave enough to tell him that I could live with him or without him, his choice. I wasn’t going to pussy-foot around his life anymore, his wants, his ‘learned’ treatment of a wife & children … women in general … or his life with his mother (in his mind, as it should be). He was going to have to learn new ways or leave as I had only a short time to live the rest of my life and it wasn’t going to be under his rules.
I told him that I am a smart, talented, capable, grown-assed woman and I wasn’t going to take it anymore.
I had raised 4 kids, basically alone, kept house, managed the finances, kept everyone fed, trained our children to be smart and capable in looking after themselves from cooking to laundry (from start to finish and back into drawers) … and, boy, are they capable ! They are all in management level jobs, raising smart and independant children. I am a grandmother of 10 biological grandkids and couldn’t be prouder.
So, I am pleased to count my self as a member of the feisty senior women’s club !!
Thank you for your writings,
Sharron
Whoo! Hoo! I am on your cheering squad. Thank you for taking the time to comment on my post. Glynis has asked me for a recipe for the Seniors’ Centre for Excellence for the February issue and I will be presenting a Zoom presentation on my thoughts on food as a language of love on February 13 with Glynis. I am presently working on a memoir/cookbook titled “For the Love of Food — Family Edition” which traces the way food and cooking has shaped my life through five generations of food-loving family. Perhaps I will see you there.