The aging process affects us all at different rates. Some people
of fifty-three, like the esteemed author, look a mere thirty-five, with
sparkling brown eyes, a handsome gait and the virility of a steam train.
Others, like the author's friend Colin, look like little middle-aged men
at twenty-one with middle-aged outlooks of set ways and planned
futures. In women the former condition is common but women rarely
suffer from the latter, being fired with the insatiable drive of ambition
for either an independent and distinguished career in a still
male-dominated world, or a home and seven children by the time they
are thirty followed by an independent and distinguished career as a
Cheltenham councillor or a public relations agent for Jonathan Cape, in
later life.
No such luck for Charles Charlesworth, who was born on the
14th of March, 1829, in Stafford. At the age of four Charles had a beard
and was sexually active.
In the final three years of his life his skin wrinkled, he
developed varicose veins, shortness of breath, grey hair, senile dementia
and incontinence. Some time in his seventh year he fainted and never
gained consciousness.
The coroner returned a verdict of natural causes due to old age.
Hugh Cory. Advanced writing with english in use. Oxford University Press, p. 34
According to the text above,
it is rather common for women to look older than they really are.
