Gossip

Last weekend, I went on a little trip to the coast with some friends
who were participating in a bowling tournament. I love the ocean,
and so we made it a point to spend some time at the beach. Maybe
later I'll write about the 'Seagull Incident'.

During the tournament, those of us who weren't bowling sat in the
stands behind the bowlers. Mostly, it was wives.

One of the wives (M) commented to me about (P), one of the other wives, who was choosing not to sit with the rest of us, wondering about her reasons.

I told M I'd heard P had trouble with her knees, and perhaps didn't want to climb further up the steps. M responded with, "I think she's a lot older than Dave (P's husband)." What this had to do with P's bad knees, I have no idea.

I smiled and said "Appearances can be deceiving." At the time, I felt that P and Dave looked about the same age. I couldn't help wondering if M was really asking about my situation with my late husband.

I suppose it took the fun out of gossipping for M, but she was treading on thin ice with me. My grandmother was eight years older than my grandfather, and they were married more than 50 years before she died. My late husband was younger than me by six years. It turns out, P is older than her husband by 10 years. That doesn't translate to "a whole lot" in my book. And neither do I find it to be juicy gossip.

If their ages were reversed, with Dave being 10 years older than his wife, no one would even take notice. In fact, it's almost expected for men to be older than their wives. I think we need to reverse this trend. I'd like to see more women with younger men. Women live longer, so why not? Age is only a number, and if both parties are mature adults, I see no reason not to.