Women Talk Life After 60 at WHS

Women will be the topic of conversation March 19 at the Westport Historical Society when Sherri Daley hosts a program inspired by “What We Talk About When We’re Over 60,” a book she co-authored with former college roommate Linda Hughes.

“Over 60” is a response to the idea that women of a certain age become invisible, to men, in the workplace and to the world in general, Daley says. She notes that women over 60 make up 20 percent of the 157 million females in the U.S. and that while “they might be invisible, they still have a voice.” “What We Talk About,” she says, gives them a platform.

Published in June 2014, the book is a collection of essays by Daley, Hughes and 28 other women on such topics as sex, facelifts, falling in love, marriage, widowhood and more. “Some are so wonderful I wanted to cry afterward,” said Daley, an English teacher who also writes a blog and book reviews on her website, www.sherridaley.com.
 
Daley tells it like it is when talking about the “golden years” and doesn’t let her friends get away with sentimental talk. “I tell them, ‘60 is 60, it’s not the new 40,’ and ‘we’re not getting better, we’re just getting older.’ ” In addition to Daley, three or four of the book’s contributors from this area will read from their essays at the March 19 event. The program will then be thrown open to the floor for questions and comments from the audience. Daley hopes women of all ages, and men as well, will come out to share their stories.

Daley’s chapter for “Over 60” talks about “an old boyfriend tour” in which she flew to California and back to her home state of Michigan to see a former high school squeeze. The writer says she called ahead first rather than show up unannounced to avoid any awkwardness. “The wives were accepting,” says Daley, who is twice divorced and didn’t have to fret about pushback on her own home front. “Each encounter was different,” she says, “some hurtful, some wonderful.”
 
The authors have their own “What We Talk About” Facebook page that invites both women and men to post their own stories.

“What We Talk About When We’re Over 60,” Thursday, March 19, 6:30-8 p.m. A $10 donation, and reservations are suggested: (203) 222-1424. Hors d'ouerves and wine will follow the presentation, sponsored by First County Bank. Westport Historical Society, 25 Avery Place, across from Town Hall. For more information about the WHS, go to www.westporthistory.org.