'I Hope I'm Like Her, When I'm Her Age.'

At the age of twenty-five, I had the great good fortune to meet a remarkable woman named Thelma. She was seventy at the time, and literally one of the most beautiful and fascinating women I have ever known. I was at first amazed at her lovely, youthful appearance, and demeanor. There was no artifice in that demeanor. Thelma indeed possessed an ageless heart. Once I’d begun to really know her, I was even more impressed by her inward beauty, total interest in, and love of, life, and her complete lack of age bias.

Thelma was tall, slim, and carried herself beautifully. She wore her hair almost shoulder length, in a soft style. It was a shade of silver that far from aging her appearance seemed to enhance it. Her make-up was perfection, with no attempts to youth-ify herself. She applied cosmetics sparingly, and the effect was natural, and attractive. She had been a buyer for an upscale department store, in women’s fashion, for over twenty years, and her fashion sense was evident. She wore the tailored clothing styles of the day, and always had about her an aura of pure class. From her I heard, ‘ Clothes don’t make you, you make the clothes’, for the first time.

Thelma and I were voracious readers, and enjoyed talking books and authors. She possessed a sparkling mind. She was intelligent, well educated, inquisitive, witty and wise. She was not one for wandering around in the past or re-living old memories. Nostalgia to Thelma was irrelevant. She lived in the moment; once stating that if your best memories ever become ones made more than a month ago, it was high time you made more! She never intimated any grief for the passing of her youth. There was nothing about her that hinted that her glory days were past. On the contrary, Thelma viewed herself as a continuing work in progress, with her best yet to come. She taught me that one’s age is but a marker declaring one’s location on the path of life. The only importance of these markers is that they stand as reminders that eventually, one reaches the end of the path.

I have come to realize over the years, how much of an influence my having known Thelma has been in my life. As girls, as young women, we may have seen or known more mature women, and possibly formed the thought, ‘I hope I’m like her, when I’m her age’. Well, I’m working on just that…I hope I’m like Thelma, when I’m seventy.

Jeannine Schenewerk

Copyright © 2004-2005 Jeannine Schenewerk