Summer is drawing to an end, Grit & Glammers, and I’ll be honest — I always feel a little wistful when it does. Let’s face it: summer is my favorite season. The days stretch long and gold, and you can linger over a second cup of coffee or a porch supper without feeling one bit guilty about it. So these end-of-summer reflections arrive with a small lump in my throat, the way they do every year. Now, fall is my favorite season to get dressed — give me tweed and a good boot, and I’m a happy camper — but the moment September rolls into town, the calendar starts to buzz and the whole year shifts into a higher gear. Between my sixty-eighth birthday and coming home from my fiftieth high school reunion — a whole weekend of name tags and is that really you?, five looks tied together with one red thread, and the reminder that the goal was never to turn back the clock — I’ve been in a reflective mood. So before we go tearing into fall, let’s sit with the summer a minute.
Table of contents
Key Takeaways
- Summer is my favorite season, and I’m always sorry to see it go — even though fall is my favorite season to dress, and September resets the whole calendar.
- Life Beyond Style is my reflective corner of the blog — the writing about everything that happens around the clothes: grief, growth, family, and reinvention after fifty.
- Friendship matters more, not less, as we age — and I’m making real room for new friends as I dig into life in Atlanta.
My End of Summer Reflections: Your Bestsellers and My Fall Cart
Before the linen gets pushed to the back of the closet, I did what I do every year at this turn — I looked back at what you reached for all summer long. I rounded it all up in Sunday’s post, What Women Over 50 Are Buying This Fall, and a few things surprised even me.
The single most-bought piece of the whole season wasn’t a dress or a sandal — it was a swimsuit, the Lands’ End Tugless Midkini. Which tells you everything about how well practical and pretty can share a drawer. Talbots led the pack in August, with Chico’s and Ann Taylor right on its heels, and denim came roaring back after a quiet spring.
As for what’s in my own cart for fall? I’m filling the true gaps. A tweed jacket I’ll wear for ten years. A pair of dark denim that does the work of three. The rule I keep repeating to myself as the Labor Day sales roll in: shop the hole, not the bargain. If you want the full rundown of what’s selling and what I’m eyeing, it’s all waiting for you in Sunday’s roundup.
Why I Started Life Beyond Style — a Place for Reflection
Today’s column — Life Beyond Style started because a closet can only hold so much of a life. For years I wrote about Classic Style — the blazer, the white shirt, the great pair of jeans — and I loved every minute of it. But the bigger stories kept knocking: a long marriage that ended, a business I built and then stood back from, wondering now what, a novel I’d left on a shelf for the better part of a decade.
Life Beyond Style is the room I made for those. It’s my weekly place for reflection — essays on grief, growth, family, and real-life reinvention for women over fifty. When the clothes step aside for a moment, this is what’s underneath.
The Posts I Keep Coming Back To
If you’re new around here, Ladies, a few essays make a good front door — and each one is a little window into why this series exists.
Beyond the Blazer: Reinvention for Women Over 50 is where I first wrote honestly about reinvention — not the glossy magazine kind, but the ground-up rebuild that comes after loss, when you’re relearning how to cook for one and set a smaller table. It’s the essay that started this whole reflective streak, and the one I’d hand a friend first.
Life Beyond Style: Rewriting the Script is where I finally pulled that shelved novel back into the light and introduced you to my leading lady. Sharing those first pages was terrifying and freeing in equal measure — proof, I hope, that a dream set aside isn’t a dream lost.
Atlanta Weekends, Frances Valentine, and a New Chapter followed me into a happier plot twist: more time in Atlanta, closer to my granddaughters, and the pretty-and-practical business of building a life in a new city — Frances Valentine flats and all.
Making Room for New Friends
Here’s the thread running underneath all of it — the reunion, the reflection, the new city. Friendship.
Nobody quite warns us that the friendship pipeline narrows as we age. For most of our lives, it was automatic — school, work, church, raising our children put the same faces in front of us until closeness simply happened. But the years quietly close that valve, and if we’re not paying attention, the circle can shrink without our ever deciding to let it. So I’ve made a decision to the contrary: I’m making room for new friends, on purpose.
Nowhere more than in Atlanta. Being closer to my granddaughters is what pulled me into the city, and rather than tiptoe around the edges of a new place, I’ve decided to plunge straight in. I’ve joined a new book club — nothing turns strangers into friends faster than arguing happily over a novel — and I’ve pulled up a chair at a new mahjong group, where I am equal parts terrible and delighted. Just last week, two new friends from my sorority alum club and I went to see the Odyssey and lingered afterward over a long Italian dinner, and somewhere between the pasta and the second pour we all said the same thing out loud: how much it matters to keep making new friends, and to keep an open heart while we do it.
That open heart is the harder half, Gang. It means going first. It means assuming the best of someone new and being willing to be a little brave at an age when it’s easy to decide you’re all set with the friends you’ve got. But the women I admire most are the ones who stayed reachable — who kept saying let’s get dinner long past the point anyone expected them to. I want to be one of those women. I intend to be.
The Friend I Came Home For
I’ll tell you the truth: the reunion wasn’t really why I flew home to Omaha last week. I went home for Lorrie.
She’s been my best friend since 1976 — high school and long, long after. And do we have stories! The summer we faithfully watched General Hospital before heading to the pool — anyone else remember Luke, Laura, and Scotty? Senior prom in our cute dresses and nosegays, on the arms of our dates. The New Year’s Eve we put the car in a ditch just trying to find the party — we hadn’t even arrived yet. The afternoon at Lake Okoboji we climbed aboard a boat full of strange boys — hitchhiking on a raft, I suppose you’d call it. It all turned out just fine — a different time, a different place — but still. Lorrie was there for every last one. We didn’t stay in close touch through our thirties, forties, and fifties; distance has a quiet way of doing that, of letting the years stack up between visits. But Lorrie and I were the kind of friends where none of that ever counted against us. Every time we found our way back into the same room, the years simply melted away, and it was as if we’d talked the night before.
Because that’s what a friend like Lorrie is. She’s the one who knows me inside and out — who knew my mother and father, who knew my siblings, who knew Mr. Style long before he was my husband, who knew me before I was really me. Before the wife and the mother and the grandmother, before Style at a Certain Age was ever a glimmer of an idea. There are so few people left who were there at the very start, who remember the girl I was before she became this woman. Lorrie is my witness. She holds a piece of my whole story that no one else can.
I knew this visit was different before I ever got on the plane. Lorrie has glioblastoma — a brain cancer — and she’s in an assisted living apartment now. She’s still very much herself, still cognizant, but she’s losing her ability to speak. So I did the talking for the two of us, the way only an old friend can. And I got to do the very thing I went home to do: tell her, face to face, how much I love her. How much I treasure her, and every single year of this friendship.
I’m tearing up just writing this to you, Gang. It was a beautiful, bittersweet afternoon, and I am so deeply thankful I was given it. You can imagine how quickly the name tags and the party chatter faded into the background once I’d spent those hours with the person who has meant the most to me since 1976.
Closing Thoughts
Every season hands you something on the way out, and summer’s parting gift is this: permission to slow down long enough to notice what — and who — matters, and to say the loving thing out loud while we still can. So I’ll wave this one off with a full heart and an even fuller calendar, carrying the good parts forward into fall. New chapters, new friends, the same red thread of a life that keeps on unfolding. Thank you for being here for all of it, Grit & Glammers.
Style has no expiration date — and neither do you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Life Beyond Style is my monthly essay series on the SaaCA blog. It’s the reflective corner where I write about the life that happens around the wardrobe — grief, growth, family, and real-life reinvention for women over fifty.
Because style was never the whole story. After building a brand and living through a season of big changes, I wanted a place to write about what comes next — the harder, truer, more hopeful things a closet can’t cover.
Start by treating it as something you do on purpose, not something you wait to happen. Join a standing group — a book club, a mahjong table, an alumnae circle — so you’re in the same room with the same people again and again, and be the one to say “let’s get dinner after.”
Start with Beyond the Blazer for the reinvention story, then Rewriting the Script for the novel I set aside and came back to. Atlanta Weekends is a lighter, joyful one if you’d rather ease in.
Look back before you shop forward. Notice what you actually reached for all summer, keep the pieces that earned their place, and fill only the real gaps as the fall sales arrive — one good jacket beats a cart full of impulse buys.
Shop the Post
This one’s more about the reading than the shopping — but if you’re filling those end-of-summer gaps, browse my full ShopMy storefront for outfits, home, and fall pieces, and Sunday’s bestsellers roundup has the whole season’s most-loved buys in one place.
Before You Go
Tell me in the comments: what did this summer give you that you want to carry into fall — and are you making room for new friends, too? I read every one.
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- 🛍 Shop: My ShopMy storefront
What you wrote about your high school friend Lorrie did bring tears to my eyes. It was wonderful you were able to meet again and take off right where you left off. Last fall I met with a roommate from college and we hadn’t seen each other in probably 40 years but it was just like we saw each other last week with our catch up.
One thing I did this summer was visit my granddaughter at her school in Texas ( I live in Wisconsin) it was the first time my husband and I visited her at her school. Now I do feel we renewed our connection again. Which is very good.
I do enjoy reading your different reflections as sometimes we all do have just about the same feelings.
Beth,
Summer is my favorite season too. And I LOVE it when I can add layers in late September. I have a request. I have a pair of Talbots seersucker pants (tan and white) that a stylist picked out for me. I have not worn them nearly enough. Would you do a post on how to style them next Spring? (I searched the internet and saw no posts on styling seersucker pants for women -only for men!)
Thanks for always sharing great ideas. I’m using your idea for a long sleeved blouse over shorts in this transition season! (Post: June 21, 2026) I have all the parts I need to look stylish! Again, many thanks!
Hugs to you, dear Beth … and to Lorrie. I lost a dear client/friend and my great friend lost her niece to Gioblastoma. Wonderful that you spent time treasuring her presence and made sure she knows that.
Your friend Lorie reminds me of my best friend and cousin. I was in her wedding and we were as close as sisters. Although we were 3 thousand miles away I came to visit her 3 times a year and talked twice and sometimes 3 times a day. We laughed and cried together and when I was in town shopped together. Later the computer let us shop together over the phone. When she passed away I was lost and after 6 years still miss her. I am ten years older than you and know the hurt of losing close friends. We must stay strong and carry on.
Thank You for your heartfelt message about your friend it brought me to tears. Thank you for sharing with your readers.
I have followed you for so many years.. I always appreciated your hard work.. I now follow you along with my twin sister.. we will say “ did you see Beth’s column”? We just love your column.. thank you…
Oh Beth I am so sorry for you. I lost my oldest and dearest friend to cancer 20 years ago. We had also been friends before husbands and children. No one will ever replace her in my heart. I am very lucky to have a sister that I have always been close to so I am very lucky to still have a “best friend”.
Big hugs ❤️
I am so sorry to hear about the health of your best friend Lorrie. I said a little prayer for her. I have a friend like that. We did not start being friends until are 30’s and baby sat each others children. We can tell each other anything without condemnation. She and her husband moved to Ohio 2 years ago to be with oldest daughter and family and miss her everyday. We talk as often as we can.
I have brown suede blazer, purse and only had to add a suede look skirt from Talbots last week to make my Fall wardrobe updated. Have a few Summer items to put under blazers etc and should be pretty much set unless I see something I cannot live without. lol
Dear Beth,
The most important thing I want to say thank you for sharing what’s happening and going on in your heart. I have so much admiration for YOU and how you have navigated your life after the loss of your love of your life, Mr. Style. The blessing is you created three children together.
I can only imagine visiting your forever and ever dearest friend, Lorrie that knows you inside out how HARD that visit was. I hope she is not suffering in pain. Dealing with a chronic debilitating disease is extremely difficult. I am sure she was over joyed to have you visit and spend time with her.
ME: starting to clean out a messy office/creative room and hope to hit all my files in my office that is busting out of their folders. I hope to make room to create new friends, it’s not easy. I have RA and that limits me some, it comes with other issues. When all is taken away from you, what is left is how you
respond. Right? YOU are a pro at this.
Warm hugs & smiles
WOW! What a poignant, heartfelt message.
I’m SO glad Lorrie has such a pal in you, Beth!
Have fun, Sweet Girl! Life can take you to SO many unexpected places.
Hope you have a wonderful, peace filled day! 💝
First and foremost you are definitely a writer! This was an absolutely beautiful post.
Thank you for sharing all the parts of life!
Oh Beth I’m so sorry to hear about Lorrie. She sounds like a wonderful friend and your shared memories are so meaningful.
I think part of the reason that people stop making so much effort to make new friends as we get older is because we don’t have enough time left to make any more “old friends”, because the friendships that survive over the years are the best ones of all, for all the reasons you gave – folks who knew our parents and remember them, those who knew us as we grew into who we are, and vice-versa.
But that’s not to say that new friends aren’t valuable. And in sharing about our life and experiences there’s endless topics of conversation to bond over.
Social interaction is the number 1, and most fun (at least for extroverts) way to keep our brains active for longevity.
So beautifully written, I am sorry about your friend, she is as lucky to have you as you are to have her. I am fortunate to still have a few of those long time friends and completely understand the unspoken specialness that they bring to this season of our life. I also see the difficulty and importance of meeting new people and putting ourselves out there. I appreciate and look forward to your posts and as a long time bookclubber 25+ years, I can’t wait to recommend yours!
Beth, this was beautifully written and left me a bit teary eyed. It some how captured many of my own feelings and touched me deeply. Thank you.
Hello Beth,
You’ve been such an inspiration for me over the past several months since I joined your blog/email group. I turned 77 this summer and can identify with so much of what you say (I can actually hear your voice in my head as I read since I’ve listened to many of your posts).
Over a year ago I started a book club and made new friends that are quickly becoming dear friends. My daughters gave me a mahjong set for my birthday in July so I joined a local group and have been digging into learning how to play. Thanks for your style inspiration and encouragement to keep on learning and striving to be our best selves.
Sincerely,
Theresa
Your post today reminded me how blessed I am to still be in touch with my high school girlfriends. There are six of us within one year of each other who meet for lunch in the summer and exchange ornaments in December. We vary in political ideology (we never discuss), health (one still does triathlons and one is getting knee replacements), and assets, but we’re united by our love and dedication to each other. We’ve spent long weekends in a B&B with our husbands, and held a hand when a husband with Alzheimer’s had to go to assisted care and an adult child was incapacitated. We are our “golden” girlsfriends. the ones who knew our parents and siblings and were there when we married, divorced, had children and grandchildren. When meeting new people , they realize I have the potential to be a good friend to them, too.
Hi Beth,
I, too, miss summer each year as autumn rolls around. Summer is my favorite season.
Please send me the Closet Cleanse Guide. I am a longtime subscriber/reader and could use the suggestions on paring down my closet! Thanks for inspiration!
Beth, how blessed your friend Lorrie is to have you! You made me cry as I read the most beautiful tribute to life long, forever friendship! One of the reasons that I look forward to your posts is how real you are in a world that can be so fake.
Thank you so much!
Love,
Suzanne
Such a beautiful tribute to your lifelong friend. I know your visit was a blessing to you both.
This summer – it was great!!!
A visit from my daughter and 6 year old granddaughter. Trips with them to a water park ( that was on her bucket list to do with Grandma!) went to the beach, went bowling, saw Moana and spent time together.
Also a visit from my sister (lives in CA). We went to the beach for the day. I invited 2 friends of mine she knows over for lunch. That was a lot of fun – eating some great “southern food” and talking. That’s something I would like to carry into fall.
What a beautiful tribute to your best friend. I’m so sorry she is ill. Life just seems so hard when we have to face losing those who mean so much to us. My heart goes out to you. You have been so honest with us regarding your ups & downs, and you are & will continue to be such a gift to your grandchildren. Thank you for sharing your life! I look forward to many more of your life lessons.
Beth, you write the most inspiring blogs that touch on real life events. If we wait to reconnect or we wait to be happy, we may just run out of time. I’m sure your dear friend is spending countless hours thinking about the words you shared with her.
Thank you again for sharing a snippet of your personal life.
It’s beautiful!
Dear Beth,
I’m also tearing up while reading your reflection. I’ve written before, so admiring your strength and courage as you maneuvered through the most difficult experiences in life and are now writing new chapters with so much resilience and joy!
I share some of your similar story; living life with 3 sons who were and remain a giant part of my heart. And yes, so many lifelong friends are no longer with me but making the effort to make new ones has been a blessing.
I can get melancholy missing the past, but your comments always remind me to be grateful for the present day!
You have also inspired me to have some fun in my closet and stop making workout clothes the only thing I wear!
God Bless YOU….
You & I are the same age. Having a best friend for that many years says a lot about both of you. Congratulations! Thanks for sharing. And I too remember watching General Hospital before going to the pool
How lovely that you and Lorrie had a wonderful visit. I’m sure it soothed something in your soul, and I have no doubt that it will have soothed something in Lorrie’s heart as well.
Regarding transitioning into fall (my favourite season, not just for style): As long as the weather cooperates I’ll be wearing most of my summer clothes, but adding a light layer and/or socks when necessary. I have donated items that I want to say farewell to, and have purchased only a dark brown tote-style handbag, a short-sleeved red cashmere sweater, and a deep pink lightweight merino pullover that will be perfect for layering as the temperatures cool. All these are replacements, not additions Greetings to all the Grit and Glammers from Vancouver! ❤️🇨🇦🍁
I am very sorry to hear about your close friend Lorrie.
It is very painful to see someone you are close to
with such a terrible disease. I am a retired hospice
nurse and seeing love ones pass is definitely not
easy.
I would like you to know I am thinking of you
and it can be very difficult to open up about your feelings, yet I thank you for sharing and writing about
your visit with your close friend. You are very uplifting
and I feel blessed to be a part of your journey with not only
reading about what to wear at a certain age but also sharing your thoughts and life`s different phases which
we all have to travel. Thank you again and until your
next post take care and know you have my support from
another grit and glam person.
Oh Beth…I had tears in my eyes too while reading about you and your best friend. I lost my “Lorrie” in 2013, also from cancer. We were the same as you two; family, all the secrets, knew each other from 5 years old and lived across the street from each other until leaving for college. No one can replace a friend like that.
It’s so great that you were able to see her. My friend and I never lost touch, saw each other as often as we could until her death.
Summer is my favorite season too. I’m always a little depressed when Sept. 1 rolls around, even though it’s technically still summer.
You have a very interesting life, and the way you write about it and go about living is so inspirational.
I love how you’re handling your unfolding new life in Atlanta, and look forward to hearing more about that.
Fashion wise, I’m a little confused about what you said about looking back to go forward. Are you saying get rid of what you didn’t reach for? Fill in the gaps for fall, with what; the styles you reached for all summer?
Not sure what you mean, but I certainly could use some help.
Thanks Beth. Enjoy your blog. I don’t know how you do it all, but keep doing it!
Beth, I’m so grieved about your dear friend’s diagnosis but grateful you got to spend time with her. Friends who knew us as we were and where we came from are priceless.
I am glad you were able to spend time with your cherished friend. Wishing her comfort and peace.
Beth-so happy you got to reconnect at your 50th.
I lost a beloved girlfriend to gioblastoma a few years ago. Lucky I was with her the night before she died. Such a sad tragedy.
Life is such a strange adventure.
I wasn’t able to have kids due to undiagnosed endometriosis before doctors knew to diagnose. So very happy you are leaning into full grandma mode.
Hugs
Chris
So glad you had the special visit with Lorrie. There will always be a special bond between childhood friends. I have one that I have been friends with since i was 14(I am now 80). We are lucky enough to live only an hour apart so we get together often and usually with our husbands. I also remember a few years ago when 2 very close friends and neighbors moved away at almost the same time leaving me with a big hole. It has taken a couple of years but I now have a new set of close neighborhood friends to enjoy. I feel so blessed. Friends are truly the best.
Beth
Reading about your friend Lorrie brought back sweet memories of my best friend Elaine. She fought Glioblastoma for 3 years and suffered from aphasia since the beginning.we were friends for over 50 years.
Summer has been hard with losing a cousin to Agent Orange and my younger brother going into long term care because of Parkinson’s Disease. My brother in law also has Parkinson’s and is in a rehab facility.
All of this has made me accept that no one is promised tomorrow and to try to live each day to the fullest.
September brings new hope and joy as we await the arrival of my nephew and his wife’s first baby. The circle of life continues. I am always sure to tell my friends and family that I love them.
I was tearing up reading about your dear friend. I lost my “Lorrie” in 2021 … she had cancer as well, and due to Covid I was not able to visit her during her last days. This, too, would have been our 50th high school reunion. Boy, the memories!!! Thanks for sharing your story.
Dear Beth,
what you wrote about your friend really touched me. I am the same age as you, and I lost my husband three months ago. My lifelong best friend, who was in an early stage of dementia, was still here for me. Recently her condition has worsened, I am losing her as well. So sad.
I hope to be able to find new friends some day,too.
Thank you for sharing your experiences
Martina from Germany
Hi Beth
Have enjoyed your post for years. I have retired and of course that can be scary. Over the last three years not a monster anywhere! Sunny shiny mornings on the porch with coffee and a good book, getting reacquainted with old high-school friends and meeting new friends, and traveling to some new places. Enjoy this lovely time in life!
Just extra note am seventy four. Have 3 grandchildren ages 30,25 16 and four great grands, ages 7,10,11,14.
Your post about your high school
Friend was so heart-warming. How wonderful she must have felt knowing you shared how very important she has been in your life.
My summer was wonderful and jam packed with a Nana and granddaughter trip to Charleston. She turned 11 and started junior high two weeks ago. She and I had the best trip and I pray those memories stay with her forever. Then it was 15 days either way my two BFF of over 50 + years in Connecticut and cape cod. I’m
Still on a high from all the retail therapy. Beach days and great meals over a good bottle of wine. I am grateful everyday for new opportunities and spending time with my people. A loyal follower
I’m so glad you had the gift of goodbye with your friend Lorrie. What a precious friendship for you both.
I enjoy your ideas so much.
You have shared such a beautiful reflection of your friendship with your dear friend Lorrie. As many have said, I have tears in my eyes!! Friendships are so important and I am blessed by several 40+ year friendships!! We have shared the ups and downs of life together and they know ‘all the secrets’! I truly love your style and how much time you take writing and keeping us stylish!!! Thank you, Beth💙
Beth, one of the things I love about you is that you are so open and vulnerable with us, your readers. Your friendship with Lorrie sounds so special, and I hope the bond that you share is a blessing to you both. I lost a dear friend several years ago to early onset dementia. We were college roommates, she was in my wedding, and godmother to one of my daughters. Although we lived in different states, we saw each other every few years and picked up right where we had left off. When she told me her diagnosis, I was devastated. She, too, lost her ability to speak, and eventually, lost her life to this awful disease. But I treasure all my memories of her and the love and beauty she brought to my life. Those kinds of friendships are rare, and I’m so glad you and Lorrie have that.