Meet the Author: Kathy Page "Invisible Cougar"

Kathy Page dabbles in many things, writing being one of them. She also enjoys participating in the local community theatre, reading, painting, and spending time with family and friends. Traveling is a particular enjoyment, which is good as she does quite a bit for both her paying job and volunteer work. She is on the national Board of Directors and an FDA Patient Representative for the Ekbom Disease Foundation. Kathy also does advocacy work for the American Cancer Society. Kathy enjoys an occasional challenge to keep life exciting.

The Invisible Cougar

Kathy Page

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wo major events happened on my fifty-fifth birthday; I started losing my invisibility, and I became a cougar. The birthday was inevitable; losing the invisibility was a mixed blessing, and at the time I had no idea what a “cougar” was.

Let me back up a little. Two years ago my husband Alvin left me for his secretary—his  much younger secretary. While I knew he had been unfaithful in the past, it still came as a hurtful surprise. Even more hurtful was our daughter Niki’s ready acceptance of the situation. Her words when he moved out were, “Well! You have let yourself go. Dad has a prestigious job and needs someone “glam” to stand beside him.” It was at that point that I started becoming invisible. Once the divorce papers were signed, I no longer existed for my ex-husband. Our daughter completely defected to her father’s side and became fast friends with the new wife.

Then I started noticing that friends stopped calling. When I passed them on the street, they looked right through me. During the long walks I started taking, not one person responded to my “hello” or smile. Sales people ignored me as I wandered the aisles and the Girl Scouts didn’t come to sell cookies at my door. I assured myself several times a day that I still existed by looking at myself in the mirror. Of course, that did nothing to make me feel better. Looking back was gray listless hair, a face with no make-up, frumpy loose clothing, and a defeated look about the eyes. I realized I was slowly fading away.

The rest of this story, and twenty other fiction stories, can be found in A Shaker of Margaritas: Cougars on the Prowl available in paperback and in Nook and Kindle versions.