The secret to ageing well is a zest for life
HOW refreshing to read Sandra Howard’s positive view of women over 70 maintaining a youthful appearance and attitude (Mail). Sandra’s an excellent example of this. I remember her modelling in the Sixties at a time when I was working in fashion public relations in London, and she looks as svelte and glamorous today as she did then and, perhaps more importantly, she has retained a youthful zest for life and is able to remain fit and active. I agree with her that the Sixties were great to live through when women realised that they had equal opportunities with men for the first time, and that they could combine a career with motherhood. In the following decades we’ve also been able to take advantage of improved health care and for some, larger disposable income, which has enabled spending on beauty care and products. When I was growing up in the forties and fifties, older women dressed, for the most part, sombrely in blacks and browns and would no more have thought of working out in a gym or visiting a beauty spa than they would have imagined having a range of laboursaving appliances which would allow them time for these indulgences. I’m in my 72nd year and fortunate to be in reasonably good health; to still have my own teeth, as well as reasonable eyesight and hearing. I play golf two or three times a week, take long brisk walks, look after my grandchildren on two days, and do some voluntary work, including helping to organise a major motor rally, and to run the junior section at my golf club. I also travel extensively and am looking forward to a trip in March to New York and Las Vegas to celebrate a friend’s birthday. My mum, who died three years ago at the age of 98, used to reply when people asked her how old she was: ‘I’m not sure but I feel only 18’ — a philosophy I try to emulate.
JUDITH PHILLIPS, Llandudno. LOOKING at the photos of women being ‘chic at 70’ (Mail), I wondered how many of them haven’t had a nip and tuck. Priscilla Presley doesn’t look amazing when you see her on TV — her face doesn’t move; and it’s well known that Jane fonda has had more than one facelift. Why persist in trying to get us to believe they’re natural? Thank goodness Anna ford, Angela Rippon and Helen Mirren look beautiful without lip fillers, etc.
MELISSA PARPWORTH, Ramsgate, Kent.