My hero is Meryl Streep

What makes a sixties something-woman appealing? Most of my curves have migrated to places where they can best be defined as roll bars. Even if I had curves, my wrinkled skin telegraphs my age. If I had a face lift to get rid of the wrinkles, the moddled brown age spots on my hands and arms would give do the same. I can't wear a revealing swimsuit because moles dot the geography of my back, mid-drift and chest. I can't wear form shaping shirts and the best fitting pants I own are Not My Daughter's Jeans. What's a girl who reveled in her youthful perky blondness for so many years to do? Do I just accept a new image as lump in the corner of the room?

Well, ladies, there is hope. See the movie It's Complicated starring Meryl Streep. Here's a woman who took on a role where she defines what it means to be appealing in our fifties and sixties. The visible crow's feet around her eyes and mouth don't distract from the twinkle in her eye and the welcoming smile on her face. She wears well-fitting, but softly shaped clothes that subvert her heavier frame, but give her an alluring look when she walks into a room without embarrassing her grown children. She's energetic and athletic without trying.

Watching Meryl lightened my heart as I watch the youthful me slip away, never to be seen again except in the photo album. Instead of lamenting the loss, I now have the strength to look forward to the next phase, the phase where I can be attractive without trying to go back in time. I'm reassured that I don't have to turn into a woman who shrinks as I age--the woman who wears too much make-up, sits with shirt buttons popping across my swollen breasts or walks around in polyester knit stretch pants with with sagging ear lobes from wearing too heavy earrings. I know I'll look much more like my great grandmother - a small feisty woman who gloried in her white hair braided and placed around her head like a crown. She lived to 89 and always kept the twinkle in her eye.