{"id":163,"date":"2014-09-29T01:46:12","date_gmt":"2014-09-29T01:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oldkaren.com\/?p=163"},"modified":"2014-09-29T01:46:12","modified_gmt":"2014-09-29T01:46:12","slug":"granny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/?p=163","title":{"rendered":"Granny"},"content":{"rendered":"

My friend, Sarah, who works as a nanny for two adorable girls, ages three and five, also coaches a girls’ volleyball team. Her two charges were with her at a recent game, one that I happened to see. When I walked into the gym, Lucy and Nora gave me excited hugs, causing the nearby referee to ask, “Are these your grandkids?” I am<\/em> a grandmother, but I wasn’t aware that I looked<\/em> like one.<\/p>\n

Until then.<\/p>\n

The question, one I have never before been asked, shocked me.<\/p>\n

And I was shocked that I was shocked.<\/p>\n

And then I was shocked that I was shocked that I was shocked\u2026.<\/p>\n

You get the idea.<\/p>\n

This is my sixtieth year and I joke about being old, but I wasn’t aware that I really look<\/em> old. I pushed aside my shock, gave the man an answer, and tried to concentrate on the girls and the game.<\/p>\n

Nora was sitting in my lap, with Lucy beside me on the bleachers, when I felt a tickle on my leg. I looked down to see that Lucy was running her finger along the little red veins a couple inches above my knee. When I told her they were spider veins, she looked at her own thigh and said, “I don’t have any.”<\/p>\n

“I didn’t either when I was your age,” I said.<\/p>\n

Lucy then pointed to the legs of Kayla, an older girl standing on the other side of me. “She doesn’t have any.”<\/p>\n

“No, she doesn’t,” I acknowledged, and tried to explain how aging skin gets thinner, allowing veins to show through. Kayla, listening to our conversation, agreed. “My grandmother has veins like that.”<\/p>\n

Lucy went back to playing with her stuffed toy and though I stared at the game, my mind was contemplating oldness and the fact that my age impacts the way I look and am perceived by others, regardless of how young I feel inside. Granted, I have plenty of aches and pains to remind me of my age, but I still make an effort to keep in shape, am attracted to trendy clothes, admire good-looking men regardless of age, and like to eat at Sonic. I’m not surprised that little children find me grandmotherly, but I had never before considered that when a younger man looks at me he sees, rather than an attractive woman, his mother\u2026or grandmother.<\/p>\n

Wow. That’s a powerful realization I’m not sure I wanted, or expected, to have.<\/p>\n

It is, however, one that clears my vision far more than cataract surgery ever could.<\/p>\n

I’m no longer a head-turner. Just a granny.<\/p>\n

“Young man, could you help me cross the street?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My friend, Sarah, who works as a nanny for two adorable girls, ages three and five, also coaches a girls’ volleyball team. Her two charges were with her at a recent game, one that I happened to see. When I walked into the gym, Lucy and Nora gave me excited hugs, causing the nearby referee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=163"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163\/revisions\/164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}