Two generations of loveliness

Here's a photo of my friend Susan with her mother, Kay.

Susan is a luminous 61; her mother Kay is 86. Both are fun-loving women; the one in the turquoise won't miss a party, loves to learn and still skinny dips, and the one in red will appreciate me being more discreet!

Among other treasured qualities, Susan is my makeup guru; she recently took me shopping at a big drugstore, and dug till she found the perfect featherweight makeup, L'Oreal Perfect Match, velvety soft, light and ultra blendable.

She taught me to combine it with a moisturizer (I used L'Oreal Age Perfect in Day weight) to make my own custom-tinted moisturizer (at 1/6 the price of Prescriptives).

We first met through our profession in the early '80s, and discovered we lived in the same neighbourhood. Then she left for a year in Katmandu, managing a hotel. We lost touch after she returned and over time, we both changed jobs and partners.

Our hairdresser, James Maybank, re-introduced us in the early '00s; he was one of her dearest friends before his death in 2006.