Any Shiny Thing - Life after 50

Midlife Fiction

Reflections on a Birthday

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I turned fifty-eight yesterday, so if you’ll permit me, I’d like to do a retrospective in pictures.

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My love affair with bread started early.

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Kindergarten was magical. At naptime the teacher played a recording of Claire de Lune. I still remember the image I saw in my 5-year-old head: Cinderella (me) and the Prince dancing under a rose arbor.

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Dad used to call me Freckle Face. 

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Here I am in sixth grade. Mom made this dress. Slaved over that scalloped collar, I’m sure.

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In my senior pic, you can see I was in love with big hair.

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Happily married to Husband #1. This was Danny’s first birthday. I made that pantsuit. And underneath all that hair, my ex looked a lot like Clint Eastwood. We’re still friends.

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Everybody looked like this in the 80s.

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This was when I was in my thirties, in 1987. I was an up-and-coming
personnel manager, before they started calling it Human Resources.

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My husband, Bill Spreen, whom I was lucky enough to marry in 1997. You’ve read about him in this space before, enough to know he’s a real doll. And speaking of dolls, our granddaughter, Miranda, was born a few years later.

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In 2010 with Amy (who married Danny), and my new granddaughter Ella.

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2012: At fifty-eight, I’m older, wiser, more wrinkly, but still excited about the future! I totally get what Dr. Christiane Northrup means by “menopausal zest.” I haven’t felt this energetic since I was a kid. The other day I hardly ate, I was so involved in my work. Me, forgetting to eat? THAT’S new. Partly it’s because I want to get a whole lot done before August, when I will have the privilege of babysitting my (soon-to-be-born) grandson fulltime.
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Thanks for putting up with this little exercise. I guess I still can’t believe so much time has passed. When Mom laments over being “so old!” I remind her that what seems like a curse is a blessing: we humans, if we’re lucky, get to live many decades.
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Though much is lost, much abides,
And though
We are not now that strength that in old days
moved earth and heaven,
That which we are, we are.
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
made weak by time and fate
but strong in will,
to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
                                                               –  from Ulysses by Tennyson
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Comments

  1. Lynne, I’m a little late to the table but Happy Birthday, my friend! Such a beautiful photo journey and you look terrific in every one. Especially the last one! All the challenges you have had to face up till now ( and we all have them) have led to your joyful, fulfilled and wonderful life you are living now. And Wow ,congratulations on your grandson. Thanks for sharing~ delightful!

  3. I so enjoyed these pixs of you growing up, especially your senior year photo. Brought back so many memories! Thanks for sharing Lynne. Miss you! KO

    • I just want everybody to know that you were my buddy way back then, that we met in 11th grade and got in almost every kind of trouble possible from there on. That you were Country Girl, and I was City Slicker, and we dreamed when we grew up, we were gonna be rich and drive a Corvette WITH AN EIGHT TRACK up HWY 1 to Big Sur!!!

  4. Happy Be-lated Birthday! Loved this post with photos of you at each stage & age. Made me feel like I know you and who knows someday we may even meet in person!

  5. Dear friends, it’s a good time, isn’t it? The trick, I think, is to revel in the good and ignore the bad. Thomas Kinkade didn’t make it this far. Neither did Steve Jobs. I’m thrilled to celebrate what we have. Thank you all for your good wishes, and your companionship.

  9. Happy Birthday, Lynne! You make 58 look very appealing — hope you had a wonderful celebration (and congrats on the soon-to-arrive grandson!)

  10. Happy Birthday, Lynne. I’ll be 58 in June, so I’m not far behind you. I hope you did something really special and fun to celebrate the day (that is besides going to the writer’s group). Hugs to you, Peg

    • You feel it too, Joyce? Isn’t it wonderful? I haven’t felt this energetic in 20 years! Oh, sure, the aches, pains and operations are a bummer but between those places, the light is blinding! Best wishes for a happy birthday in June.

  12. You look great at every age Lynne… Happy Birthday. I had forgotten you were a few days ahead of me. I am 61 on Tuesday and toally agree with coast to coast! What I don’t agree with is that “everyone looked like this in the 80’s” I was just looking at a “permed 80’s pic” of myself and I don’t nearly look that good!

  16. Happy (belated) Birthday, Lynne! It can be rather energizing, too, to look back on how far you’ve come and reminisce about when you were so young. You don’t look all that wrinkly to me, but sometimes one sees more than others do!
    Nice to know another Arien! My 65th birthday today, and I can so relate to how you feel as another year passes. Thank you for the Tennyson poem. It reminds me of positive attitudes that I really need reminding of these days when I think about being 65! So thank you for your great birthday message. Carol

    • Happy birthday, Carol!! Isn’t the day great? I mean, nobody wants to be older but aside from that little reality, I LOVE my birthdays. I used to take the day off from work, if possible, and I would tell people since the US hadn’t declared April 12 a national holiday, I would use my own leave time to celebrate. Best wishes from a fellow Aries.

  19. Joyeux Anniversaire, Lynne. Isn’t it amazing how it all just seems to get better? Can you teach me how to do that “forgetting to eat” thing….please?

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