Saratoga News

Louise Webb

Author's advice is, 'Don't act your age'

Author Frances Weaver, 72, refers to herself as a "recycled housewife." She has years of experience in what to do with those leftovers, and she says when she makes them over, they are often better than the original dish. Weaver became a widow at 55. Rather than remain stagnant and wither like leftovers, she chose to mix some old skills with old and new interests.

"Women who don't maintain an active interest in the world around them are of no interest to anyone else," she says.

Weaver had everyone roaring with laughter as she discussed her latest book, There's More To Me Than I've Used Yet, at the Terraces, a Los Gatos a retirement community where she lectures annually. She recalled the time her husband, John, woke up in front of the television and asked what time it was. When Frances told him it was 9 p.m., he told her it was too early to go to bed and to wake him up at 9:30 p.m. to go to bed.

After listening to her talk and interviewing her, if I had to sum her up in a few words, I would say she is self-sufficient and a risk-taker. Weaver would like to see others in the same light and sets a good example. She went back to college the same year her first grandchild was entering kindergarten. It amused her when her six children gave her advice about school.

In her book The Girls with the Grandmother Faces, she offers encouragement and stresses the importance of attitude at any age. "How do you know you can't go back to the classroom or operate a word processor?" she challenges.

According to Weaver, some things that make a woman look older are wearing the same bright red lipstick that was popular in the '40s and not getting her hair brushed in back.

She discussed the role kite-flying played in her life at the age of 50. Weaver joined a small group of friends, and they flew their fancy kites together. She researched kites and wrote an article about kite-flying, which led to her writing career.

Since then , she's had many adventures, one leading to another, such as writing four books and more than 10 years' worth of newspaper columns, lecturing on cruises and appearing monthly on the Today television show.

In The Girls with the Grandmother Faces, Weaver says her face has changed, but the girl is still there. When she left, she gave me a pin with her photo on it. Underneath her picture it read, "Don't Act Your Age."