TWO WOMEN OF SERIOUS SUBSTANCE

Just recently I have been privileged to spend time with two women of substance. In Idaho, just before this trip to the UK, I had lunch with a wonderful lady, hovering on the edge of the amazing age of 100. I have known Eurice for some years now, from the Church I go to in Boise. We both read the lesson in Church from time to time, she without the benefit of glasses and I with them! Eurice grew up in Trinidad and so she and I shared the benefit of a good old English education and have a similar understanding of the history and the culture (my best friend at boarding school in the UK), came from Trinidad, so I know a bit about that beautiful island. Eurice is a shining example of how to grow old gracefully…she is full of life and enthusiasm, interested in people and events, dismisses physical setbacks, with an impatient wave of the hand, swims and walks regularly and my goodness, still drives.. I feel lucky to know her.. And we all know Bette Davis’ famous words “Old age is not for sissies”. And friends it is not an easy time of life in my experience, but a good positive outlook helps.

Yesterday I spent an evening with another extraordinary lady, the actress Fenella Fielding, famous for her fun, wit, outrageous behavior and for her work… She was giving a reading of pieces about love, taken from the famous Greek classic writers, with actor Stephen Grieff, another old acquaintance… I had met Fenella previously and, yesterday, had the chance to sit and chat with her, before the performance… Here is another amazing woman, hovering around ninety, still with her inimitable style and sense of fun and warmth…an intelligent woman, who does not take herself, nor our crazy business too seriously… Fenella was a star of her age and is still a star, who carries on with the work she loves to do, however and wherever she can, with grace and ease. And she looks wonderful, still with the kooky makeup and hair that were her signature style!