Several weeks ago I attended a symposium put on by my local daily newspaper. It was targeted to the 55+ community and promised to help us thrive! The bulk of the exhibitors were representatives of over 55 communities, health-care providers, and investment product companies. I was especially entertained by the cosmetic surgery booth! The free give-aways made the circuit of the room worth the time.
The keynote speaker was the big draw for me. Valerie Bertinelli, my crush from the 70s, was there to share her thoughts on thriving at age 55+. I was a little taken aback because in my mind she was still that adorable teenager from TV. But she confessed to her qualifying age, so time does indeed march on. She didn’t speak for a long time, maybe 20 – 25 minutes. In that time, she traced her career from the 70s to now, touched on her personal life, and finished by saying that she now has a regular cooking show on The Food Network, doing something she loves and has always been a part of the fabric of her life. And she has recently published a cookbook, something she had never imagined.
It was at this point that I began to think about how she has reinvented herself over the years. As we all know, Hollywood isn’t kind to women of a certain age, so her prospects were dimming. But she took her love of cooking that began while a child in her mother’s kitchen and parlayed it into a new career.
Valerie Bertinelli is a great example of becoming one of the Luckiest Gals in the World. She is working in an industry that has valued her for decades, and is doing something she is passionate about, and she feels people value what she is doing.