A former friend refused to reveal her age. We’d often talk about intimate subjects—affairs to salaries—but AGE was strictly off limits.  A fashion and beauty writer and editor, I think she was concerned that potential employers wouldn’t hire her if they thought she was “too old.”

Perhaps they wouldn’t have. But that was then. This is now.  Fab Over Fifty women are finally coming out of the closet! Who cares what the calendar says? 48? 52? 57? 63? 85?  It’s never been cooler to turn fifty.

I’m not sure how Heidi (above, right, with mom Liv) from Anchorage feels about her state’s former Governor, but I do know how she feels as she’s about to turn FOF. “I turn fifty next August, the same summer my youngest son graduates from high school and my oldest from college. When they were two and five, I became a single mom and started law school. Three years later, I passed the bar exam and finished a master’s degree in theology I had started in my twenties.

“When my sons were in elementary school, I tried to be a nurturing, hands-on, cookie-baking, field-trip attending mom, a primary provider and a law firm associate. But the relational costs were too high, so I left the firm to help start a program that provided legal services to those who couldn’t afford them.

“As my oldest son entered his teenage years, I balanced my desires as a mom, professional, and provider by becoming a career law clerk in federal court. Now that my sons are graduating and I am facing fifty full on, I wonder how I will reinvent myself. I am grateful for all that has been and am excited about all that is yet to come.”

Heidi in the mountains...no fairy tale

Heidi also manages to look beautiful, hike and have a great relationship with her 72-year old FOF mom, Liv, who just finished her second mini-triathlon.

I wonder if my former friend feels as good about herself as Heidi and Liv. Good enough to say:

What’s age got to do with it?