In fact, I enjoyed a delightful afternoon - yesterday - coffee and lots of talk with two beautiful, talented, charming young women. Like many others their age, they are very busy and involved with their work, which couldn't be more disparate. They are the same age, just a month apart, and each a product (if you can call it that) of a divorced home, in their cases, three divorces each. I mean, the father of one and the mother of the other have been married three times. Well, the third marriage of one of the parents has lasted. I'm getting too involved here. The fact is, that after movable, unpredictable childhoods, these two young women are well-adjusted and centred. Each of them has a fascinating career.
The older one (by a month) is a medical doctor, building on her M.D. (after a BSc), going on with further training as a pediatrician. The other one couldn't be more different. She followed up her bachelor's degree with an MFA and she is an artist, recently engaged? retained? taken on? - not sure of the word describing the relationship between her and a gallery in Montreal that will be showing (and selling, I hope) her work. They had a lot to tell each other, and me, and they shared their enthusiasm with me. Me, too. I talk a lot, too, too much, I guess, but they are very tolerant even though I am so much older. What a privilege it is for a person my age to get a glimpse of the lives of women two generations younger.
When I came away refreshed, relaxed, happy to have been in their company, I felt almost as If I had been in a time machine, loosed from earth, euphoric, in fact. Isn't it reassuring to know that there are such vital people carrying on in this century, in our not-so-new, not-so-brave new world? These two fabulous young women are in the vanguard and I am so grateful to know them. The fact that they are my granddaughters is irrelevant. I offer a completely unbiased assessment.