A former Southern pageant queen and still lovely in her 70s, Mom once issued me a warning: One day, you will be invisible.
After meeting with three doctors, I’m thinking of my mother as I walk up Park Avenue to see my final candidate, Macrene Alexiades, M.D., Ph.D. A former Southern pageant queen and still lovely in her 70s, Mom once issued me a warning: One day, you will be invisible. I tell her repeatedly that she receives admiring glances all the time—she has phenomenal bone structure, and dresses beautifully in simple, tailored clothing—but in my heart, I know what she means. She talks about little indignities, like the time she watched a news segment on fashion for “every age”: that is, the 30s, 40s, and 50s. After that, the producers evidently decided, fashion is a dark, barren universe, its postmenopausal inhabitants creeping around in comfort-waist Capri pants and fleece pullovers.