From Old Woman to Senior Citizen

Sitting by the window was THE OLD WOMAN, as her children affectionately called her. She felt useless.

Locked in a cage (a golden one), BUT A CAGE ALL THE SAME.

Ever since she'd fallen and had hip surgery, her children had decided to put a person with her, 24 hours a day, to attend to her, take care of her, and not let her do anything; the woman took her role very seriously and wouldn't let her go out, and if she did, the jailer would immediately call the children, who would show up with their reproaches.

But her friends couldn't understand how she, so active and full of plans (the one who always proposed things), could accept becoming an old woman who just watched TV, waiting for death. Olga, the most determined of the group, showed up at her house.

"Come on, get dressed and we're going to the movies, I have a surprise, you'll see." "But my children don't want me to go out." "Since when do they decide for you, what's wrong with you?"

She got changed, they argued with the jailer, and arm in arm they went to the movies. Her other friends were waiting there, and afterward they went to get something to drink and she came home very late. When she arrived she found her children waiting for her. Before anyone could say anything she told them: Today was finally a day truly lived, you (I know you love me) but you erased me as a person, without my realizing it I became an old woman. Today with my friends I discovered that I am a senior citizen and I'm letting you know that tomorrow I'm going to start a body expression course and I'll find out if I can go back to the Art History one, which I liked so much.

The faces of those present showed perplexity, surprise, they couldn't understand what was happening.

"Dears, you turned me into an old woman, something like a doll, that gets taken care of, dressed up, pampered, but you forgot that I have a brain, a life story, and the right to keep living the way I like. From now on I'm not the little old lady, I'm your mother (as you called me when you were children) and to everyone else I'm a senior citizen."

I love you very much, but now you'll have an active, engaged mother again, and you'll have to call to find out when you can come and whether I'm home. Above all, know that now I am happy.