15 April 2020 - What I see in my Zoom

Lipstick

For many years now I have worn the same lipstick - Revlon Colourstay 010. I put it on in the morning and there it stays colouring everything I say with a rosy pink, inviolate against kisses, talk, cups of tea or any food and even the caress of my tongue when I moisten my lips. It takes a makeup wipe to remove it at night, only my pillow witnesses the pale thin lips of age that used to be so full and pink. I miss those lips of my youth - their plump, healthy and natural colour signalling fertility and passion. If you can’t make it, fake it. Or in this case, make up.
My life was thrown into disarray when Revlon discontinued the colour. But I could buy it on Amazon - $7 for the lipstick, $9 for delivery - of ONE lipstick! and no, you couldn’t package them together. Free Delivery in New York. So I ordered 15 and sent them to my daughter who lived in Brooklyn and she packaged them and sent them on to me. Then Trump came into power and Kate and Levi fled home to New Zealand.
That was three years ago and I have one lipstick left. What will I do when it runs out? The prospect is so destabilising to my self image that I use thought stopping whenever that reality creeps into my mind. Actually, I thought I might die before I finished my supply but no, apparently not. I’m going to have to face up to a huge change in my circumstances and farewell 010 - which has seen me through my nursing career, a divorce, courtship and marriage to a fantastic man, my PhD, the births of seven grandchildren and Covid 19.
Sad that.