I stood in the pharmacy queue holding shampoo and painkillers and felt older than I wanted to

Dear Delyara, That combination got to me for some reason. Not because there is anything tragic about buying shampoo and painkillers. Because it felt like such an honest little portrait of this chapter of life — tired body, maintenance purchases, fluorescent lights, one child texting from school, one email unanswered, one woman in a coat trying to look steadier than she feels. I think ageing arrives in moments like that more than birthdays. In queues. In appointments. In the language of “managing things.” In how often the body now features in planning whether I want it to or not. I paid, smiled, left. But the feeling stayed.