Ethel Stockton

Old is a 4-letter Word Ethel Stockton

Old is a 4-letter Word  is a 444 page story of Annaliz, a woman determined to live her life her own way until it's over. She is in her late seventies and knows time is short. She knows her own body will inevitably betray her into weakness but in the meantime she takes great pleasure in what her body provides her: feasts for all the senses - and love. She hates the word old; believing it means illness, dis-ability and rest homes where the old are forgotten. She prefers to live in Mexico, where she can be the woman she wants to be. Her fierce insistence on her right to joy collides with her family member's sense of what is prudent, healthy and respectable. She has a boyfriend, ten years younger; has had several affairs; had a book of poems published; has many Mexican friends and feels her life is good the way it is. Her daughter, Karen, tells her she is old and not competent to handle her own affairs. She keeps insisting her mother return to the States and move into an Assisted Living Facility. Annaliz knows she is 77 but numbers mean nothing to her. She feels as though she is 65 and tries to do all the things a younger person would do. When she has episodes of illness she passes them off as not important and goes on until she finally has a stroke.