This week's beauty is Marilyn Smith Rosenfeld. Marilyn is the mother of Liz Smith who was a recent Beauty of the Week here on Lines of Beauty. It is easy to see where Liz got her artistic talents from. Marilyn and Liz seem to be yet another example of the apple not falling far from the tree.
I am happy to bring you Marilyn's story:
"Old age caught me by surprise. I am 77, will be 78 in April,
still do not feel old, but I have begun reading the newsletter from the Senior Center
with more attention.
About 15 years ago, I was in the supermarket when an older
gentleman called out in passing, "Wednesdays are Senior Citizen discount
days, pass it on!" I thought, "Why is he telling this to me?"
I have never dyed my hair, never had cosmetic surgery. I had
planned to accept old age when it got here, but not worry about it.
Old age was a time way in the future.
Three years ago, my husband suggested we go to the Senior Center
to join a French Conversation group. I said, "Surely we are not that old
yet."
We did join the group, and met several remarkable people all
over 70, some in their eighties.
We met Anne, who is 81 and dances the Tango every night
until the early morning hours.
We met Walter Ford Carter who wrote No Greater Love, No
greater Sacrifice, about his father's death as an American army surgeon in
the Normandy Invasion during WWll. He goes to France
each summer to lead tours of the Normandy
beaches.
We met Ilse, who, as a Jewish teenager exiled from Germany to France during WWll, barely escaped
being deported by the Nazis, chronicled in Once They Had a Country, Two Teenage
Refugees in the Second World War by her daughter Muriel Gillick.
I have always been an artist. Since 1984 I have been a
watercolor painter. I keep a drawing journal and draw what I see wherever I
happen to be.
My daughter Liz, the youngest of our 4 children, and the creator of Made In Lowell, had
the delightful idea of scanning my drawings, printing them out, and making
notecards which she sells online and also in her studio. My husband and I love
to go to Open Studios at Western Avenue Studios the first Saturday of each
month, visit with Liz, and be introduced as "My mom who does the drawings
on the cards." So satisfying!
I am so lucky to be able to draw and paint something I can
do as long as I can hold a pen and brush.
Our children bought us a computer seven years ago for our
50th wedding anniversary.
I love the computer. I write emails, look at stuff online, and
find all sorts of information on Google. This has kept me feeling young more
than anything else.
Over the years I have been friends with several older women
who lived into their nineties. They were all vigorous, creative, intelligent
and active. I loved, admired and respected them, and have been inspired by them
to keep drawing and painting, keep learning, keep moving, keep going. "
