“GLAD TO BE FIFTY"

Evening Star, Issue 22442, 12 September 1936, Page 27

“GLAD TO BE FIFTY"

My fiftieth birthday has at last overtaken me, and 1 am glad of it, for ft feeling of quiet contentment and happiness has crept over me, as if in return for my capitulation to middle age. 1 must admit that up to the last hour of ray forties 1 tried'. Faust-like, to retain my youth, or at least, to give an impression of “ it.” \nd now, good-bye to all that (writes “ ilene ” in the 1 Sydney Morning Herald ’). . . . . ~ a To-day, m resigning myself to the powers that be, I paradoxically feel younger than for some time past. Many a woman who, like myself, has led a happy, but busy, life, with the cares of bringing up a family and running a home, does not realise that there are so many compensations for middle age. That is Nature’s way. She provides for every stage of life. There are books for us to read, there are sunuv days to be spent about our gardens." there are quiet tea parties with old friends, where we can laugh and compare our own youth with that of the present day. Then there are golf and other pastimes. Romance, they say, dies with age, but there are other more stable things to take its place. So let us women of 50 relax and learn to grow old gracefully, and with a quiet dignity. A"e is not only shown in the face; it can lie sensed by one’s outlook, and if we therefore remain young at heart, those around ns will forget our years. Let us be thankful that we have safely steered our barque of youth through the turbulent years into the tranquil harbour of middle age.