It took me a long time to come to terms with being in my sixties. As I’ve always looked ten years younger than my actual age, this allowed me for a long time to avoid some of the unpleasantries associated with ageing, but once you decide to head for retirement… it’s hard to avoid certain questions from all sides.
Trying to come to terms with a certain anxiety about decline, and coming to terms with the way others look at us – reflecting back an image we haven’t yet got used to – is difficult. The anxiety about the passing of time, ageing and death is a profoundly human existential concern; it is by no means rare, quite the opposite, in fact. I do think, however, that having witnessed the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in two of my loved ones has made me even more fearful of physical decline.
On the other hand, I’m the sort of person who’s full of energy and always working on new projects, so I knew full well that my artistic work would take up much more of my time once my teaching days were behind me. What I didn’t realise, however, was that I’d get so much pleasure out of creating for older women, those who refuse to fade into the background, to keep quiet, or to act as though life ends when their career does.
It was whilst creating this design, called ‘Hymne à l’âge libre / Ode to Growing Older’, that I really felt I’d come a long way, that I was very comfortable in my own skin as a woman in her sixties, and that I still had so much to celebrate!
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