Editor's letter

WHILE waiting in a city nail bar last week I got talking to a very elderly lady in an electric wheelchair.

WHILE waiting in a city nail bar last week I got talking to a very elderly lady in an electric wheelchair.

She'd just had her eyebrows done - the first time she'd ever outsourced the chore of plucking - and was now booked in to get her nails painted.

She used to do it herself but the sudden onset of arthritis had made these fiddly jobs too difficult. As she chatted brightly about her bridge club outings and shopping trips I finally asked how old she was. "I'm 102," she replied with a hint of pride.

I thought of this lady as I gazed at the cover picture of Jeffrey Smart who, at 90, is still painting in his inimitable style, still welcoming Australians to his home in Italy, still hankering for a gossip.

His body is letting him down but, like my centenarian friend, he has purpose and pleasure in his life.