Lorraine Duffy Merkl is a published author, freelance journalist, and advertising creative director/copywriter. She’s written three novels: The Last Single Woman In New York City (2022), Back To Work She Goes (2013), and Fat Chick (2009. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times (City Room, Tiny Modern Love, Metropolitan Diary, Cheering Section, Motherlode, Complaint Box, Loose Ends); Straus Media (Our Town, West Side Spirit, Chelsea News, New York Press); New York Observer; New York Post; New York Daily News; Bustle; New York Family; The Washington Post; Huffington Post; xoJane; Cosmopolitan; Good Housekeeping; Motherly; Redbook; Woman’s Day; Seventeen; Town & Country; Purple Clover; She Knows; Quartz; NextTribe; The Ethel; The Independent; The Girlfriend; Rachel Ray In Season; Newsweek; Shondaland; Zibby Owens’ Moms Don’t Have Time To Write. Born during the Roaring ’20s, Angelina grew up tough as nails in Italian Harlem. By the time I came along, she’d relocated to the Bronx, where I grew up in a tough neighborhood, where I was anything but tough.
What the actor does (that I love) as she grows older.
What she did to live a long and healthy life.
Finding your ‘forever person’ CAN happen after 60.
I now have a whole new sense of adventure.
All these extraordinary women have one thing in common: They haven’t slowed down.
I can finally let go of all that's been weighing me down.
And what she did that always irked me.
Maybe I’m still someone who for better or worse commands attention, aka “I still got it.” Except now, I don’t want it.