Posts Tagged ‘looking old’

There I was, enjoying a chat with a couple of friends in a coffee shop when an acquaintance, who I had not seen for many years, stopped briefly to speak to us. She knew my two friends well, but clearly did not recognise me because after a while she smiled in my direction and asked one of my friends: “Is this your mother?”  I was so shocked I couldn’t think of anything to say at first, none of us could.  Then eventually we said “No” and realising her error she said “Oh you look so alike, are you sisters?”  Oh the damage had been done, dear reader, it was no use talking about sisters when she had just mistaken me for the mother of a 56 year old.  This was especially painful when I had gone to quite a lot of trouble with my appearance that day: I even wore a high necked sweater to conceal my lined neck. When she had gone my two friends did a valiant job of trying to reassure me that I did not look that old.  Knowing how miserable I felt, they sent cheering emails and phoned me the following day and gradually I could laugh about it (just).  I may not be very lucky in the youthful looks department, but I’m very lucky in my friends.