Posts Tagged ‘ Aging ’

As I’ve mentioned, my mother conquered the personal computer in her sixties, when few in her age group dared get close to such a terrifying machine. What if they hit the wrong button and it blew up? But my mother wanted to learn. It must be said that learning was the family religion. Once I joked to my mom, “Well, if I’m so smart, why aren’t I rich?” She looked utterly shocked. “But think how much you’ve learned!” …Read More

My mother, Ruth Woodman, was petite, charming, and sparklingly beautiful. She could also be scary, especially if you were facing her across a ping pong table or a tennis court. In addition to being a dancer, she was an excellent athlete and a formidable competitor. Here she is at age 30, at home on skis. Are the men keeping up with her? Doubt it. In India, in the 1950s, my parents joined the Delhi Golf Club. Picture Credit: …Read More

I’m looking through my dad’s address book. It’s got a worn green leather cover, and is bulging at the seams with stuff he inserted. He obviously copied some items over from an earlier book, but also taped in addresses from torn off corners of envelopes, return address labels, scraps of notebook paper, stickies of every color. Some things, especially notes to himself, he didn’t tape down, so you have to turn the pages carefully or bits of paper …Read More

By the time the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel opened, I’d practically memorized the trailer. Who can resist Judi Dench mistaking a gin and tonic for a glass of water, or Maggie Smith refusing to eat something she can’t pronounce? So, hooray, last weekend, I saw the film, a gentle comedy about seven British retirees who travel to what they think is going to be a luxury retirement hotel in Jaipur, India. I loved it, just loved it. I …Read More

My mother, Ruth Woodman, had studied ballet in New York City before marrying my dad, Everett Woodman. By the time they reached Madras (now Chennai), India, she had two little girls and was about to give birth to a third, and the dance career had been put aside. But, as luck would have it, our family happened to move in next door to a family of dancers. The three daughters—Padmini, Lalitha, and Ragini—were known as the Travancore Sisters …Read More