There is a saying that the older a person gets, the wiser a person becomes but that may not be completely true. The truth is, learning is a constant and staying mentally and physically active is part of that process. Not only does the practice teach you a thing or two but it keeps you looking younger, especially when you have entered the golden years – the fifties and over – during this sort of metamorphic period when the body begins to transform and the mind begins to focus on the state of the body even more.Still everyone ages differently and these four ‘Over 50 and Fabulous’ movers and shakers: Althea Laing, Paulette Henry, Claudette Facey-Redwood and Pat Tomlinson, tell Buzzz Caribbean Lifestyle Magazine all the fabulous changes that age has to offer. From marriage to divorce, finding love after 50, retirement, creating respectable and monumental legacies to securing their future happiness, they tell us how they manage to survive the times.
Althea Laing: Still Shining In Her Sixties
Standing tall and poised in an elegant red gown, Althea Laing (born Reynolds) resembles the picture of a majestic Phoenix, radiant and strong. Ironically, like the ancient mythical bird that is reborn from ashes to start a new, long life, so too has this dynamic personality overcome the odds to fly gracefully to the top.
Althea’s story isn’t new but it never gets old – just like her – with the melanin popping skin, and serpentine structure of her cheekbones to the signature strut she makes as she navigates her way around a room, and an undeniable strength, all matching that of a woman decades younger than she is. Where does this 63-year-old woman find her strength?
“Strength comes from making wrong choices, I want people to understand that, once you make them it is where you find out how strong you are. So, having made a few wrong choices in my life I think with each one I get stronger and stronger,” Althea says frankly.
“When you get to my age, a lot of your youthfulness comes by how you think and I try not to have negative energy in my space”
Read more in our Vol 10 #4 Edition
Paulette Henry – Proves it’s Never Too Late To Find Love
A sentimental social butterfly, the silver-haired Paulette Henry discovered that a little fairy tale magic and self-assurance can change a small cocoon space into a world of transformation. Married first at 21 years old, then divorced six years after with two sons, the young dynamo decided that she was not going to let anything restrict her from growing and spreading her wings.
“In our early 20s we are still children, meaning we are still learning about ourselves. Imagine me at 27, barely weighing 100 lbs, standing inside a court waiting to make the divorce official. I had to repeat, ‘I am here your honour’ so many times before he even acknowledged that Paulette Bell was me because I was perceived to be younger, Paulette shares.”
She says it was an amicable divorce nonetheless, and not as traumatic as she looked at it initially when she came to grips with the marriage not working. Still, she could not date for about five years.With all the sentimentalism she stays flying – high off life, not even early menopause got her down, she says a dose of supplements especially Evening Primrose were and still are her handy hormone regulators and she keeps active and adventurous.
“The things is with post menopause sometimes you feel sexy, sometimes you don’t but you have to do things to make you feel like the best you, exercise, spend time with family, dress up, do your hair…whatever it may be…take a trip because I don’t believe you should save money until you can’t walk to take a trip and get insurance!”
Read more in our Vol 10 #4 Edition
Pat Tomlinson
Is A Man On Fire
The adage, ‘What you think you become, what you feel you attract and what you imagine you create’ serves as the guiding principle for Pat Tomlinson, IBM Caribbean’s Brand sales manager. He shoulders the responsibility for IBM’s server and storage, software and services solutions across 26 territories. He currently sits on the board of the Jamaica Information Technology and Services Alliance, is a past director and current member of the Kiwanis Club of Liguanea, and a youth mentor.
If you are fortunate to be in a room with Pat, it is more than likely he will tell you, “I really believe you create the life you want to live and I don’t want to trivialize it but the scriptures say faith without work is dead, so a person has to put the work in and remain focused so that at the end of the day it will happen.”
“When I get to make someone’s life better I cherish it because, doing good for others is an indirect blessing for yourself especially when you’re not doing it grudgingly”
Life-affirming lessons
In January he will turn 56 and though it is not normal for a man his age to have a will (even if he has not looked back at it in almost a decade), it is not surprising from all that he explains, “A very good attorney-friend of mine suggested I do one, probably may be decades ago but I learnt from my father’s death…he died intestate. Still, my siblings and I were able to work through the odds and ends of it all and even though I don’t have any children I thought if that happened to him it should be a lesson for me.”
Read more in our Vol 10 #4 Edition
Claudette Facey-Redwood – Does Not Retire Being Sexy
“I know I want it to be a glam brand that reaches out to our young ladies to inspire and educate them to value self.”
When Claudette Facey-Redwood looks in the mirror she sees a hot grandma or ‘glamma’, a woman that is far too glamorous and full of youth to believe she is a grandmother. When people see her, to put it modestly, she is a hot woman barely hitting her 40s and your jaws will surely drop when she tells you, “I was born on Christmas Day in 1959.” That’s right, she turns 60 years old in December. The Capricornian is the third of four children – the only girl – almost born at Grand Market.
“I am a very dedicated and passionate person, I don’t know if it has anything to do with my birthdate, I am a fun woman to be around, one that loves to laugh and dress up and look pretty. I like when my grandchildren say grandma and everyone is looking around to see who they are speaking to,” Claudette says batting her eyelashes.
She admits that she was not always the girly-girl type having grown up with her brothers being a major influence on her behaviour. “My parents and brothers always treated me very special, of course being the only girl my mother always wanted to dress me up.But I was a bit of a tomboy and I have the scars from playing stone war to show it (which my brother got a sound beating for). It was just before I went to high school that I got prim and proper.”A very athletic student, she was active in netball and track and field when she attended Kingston’s Ardenne High School.
As she savoured her successes and the beauty of her age, she also suffered the bitter taste of health issues from being diagnosed with Fibromyalgia in 2010 to dealing with the effects of a hysterectomy the following year and then came the real big ‘M’. It is actually the word or phase in a woman’s life that once she approaches it, she becomes apprehensive – menopause.
She concludes her interview by expressing, “Some people believe menopause ages you, but I just think it’s more about the way you perceive it and react to everything. I have learnt to accept it with a pat of my face with a handkerchief, a drink of water and a smile.”
Read more in our Vol 10 #4 Edition