Hitting Fifty

When I was twenty-one, I never imagined I'd someday be fifty years old. I didn't have premonitions of an early check-out, it was simply that I couldn't picture myself aging. Fresh out of college, life stretched before me. It'd take forever for me to use up all those decades.

Once I got into the whirlwind of life - marriage, children, divorce, graduate school, career - I didn't have time to be aware of the passage of time. While I was busy living life, the years piled up. When doctors and accountants asked my age, I was surprised to hear my answer. Was I really talking about me? But it had happened and I was fifty and then I was sixty.

Since I've never been terribly conventional, my life at 50 was strikingly different from most of the women I knew at that time. I'd had three sons by birth in my 20's and 30's. I wanted a girl for my family so, at the age of 42, I adopted a baby girl from Korea who turned out to be so cool, I adopted birth sisters from Central America (a four-year-old and an infant) when I was 48. I hit fifty with three young daughters! My life as a hands-on mom - from the time my first son was born to the graduation of my youngest daughter from college - would eventually span forty-six years. It wasn't unusual for a week to include dealing with my sons' college issues, making jello jigglers for the girls' pre-school, and researching a paper for a grad school class.

Most of us hit fifty or sixty or seventy after years of chock-full activity and face major changes. Careers end or change. Children move on. In many cases, husbands leave, either through death or divorce.

This blog is dedicated to those women over fifty who are single, forging ahead on their own, making their own way. Being a single in mid-life is far different from being a hot-looking twenty-one year old. Everything from friendship groups to dining out to going to church to traveling can feel strange. How do we do the things that are important and fun without feeling awkward and uncomfortable?

I'll post topics about situations I've encountered and hope you'll respond with your experiences and how you've resolved them. I've noticed books and courses for sale on how to handle ourselves but I think our personal observations and discussions will be far more helpful. Please feel free to suggest topics through the blog or by email.

I look forward to reading your comments.