More Divine Divas stories – we recommend you start with #1 (this one).
The Divine Divas are a group of vintage-aged women who do their best to challenge the expectation that women should “Age Gracefully”. We have decided to age disgracefully, laughing all the way. The name christening was formalized at a dinner when one of the ladies referred to us as the Divine Divas. We all agreed it was a “perfectly divine” title. Wine might have been involved!
Our organizer, the best bar none, is a Brit named Bess whose namesake is Queen Elizabeth 1. She, like Bess, had a gift for reigning and was loved. Gracie, tall, elegant, and sweet-natured but with a hand of steel, is Bess’s right-hand woman. It is her job to make sure we behave with some decorum. The third member is a petite, bubbly woman who can sing an appropriate song at the drop of a hat and usually does. Her name is Jude as in ‘Hey Jude’. Finally, there is me, Aurora, or Rory for short. Although it suits me because, I would have preferred the name Regina, meaning Queen, but alas nobody asked me. The Divine Divas’ friendship is firmly bonded by a common belief life is best with old friends and old wine and ‘have a blast while we last’.
Our divine adventure began at the tail-end of summer. We felt the need to escape the humdrum and rejuvenate with excitement. Travel out of our small town was necessary. We needed to remain anonymous. Bess suggested we take the ferry across the inlet to Sidney by the sea. Once there, we could spend the day wandering around, doing just whatever we felt like it. “Divine!” we chimed. A date and time was set for just few days hence, otherwise we’d forget it. On that auspicious day, I arrived early at the departure destination, Bess’s place, of course uncharacteristically I was the first to arrive followed by Jude who bounced in, all smiles. Finally, Gracie floated in on a cloud of angel dust. All accounted for, we piled into Bess’s car and headed to the ferry terminal.
Being deprived of our morning coffee and toast, we were somewhat sedate. Sedate being a relative term and one that normally would never, ever be applied to us. Bess drove within the speed limit which was also very uncharacteristic. Asking “Why drive within the speed limit now when we have a ferry to catch!” was best unsaid as one does not want to rile up a driver of the vehicle one is in.
As we approached the dock, the ferry set sail without us. We had to wait an hour for the next one. Bess piped up that we were not too late but, actual in fact, we were in fact early as the ferry had not yet docked. We did not tear her tongue out! Our profound silence spoke volumes. Jude finally broke the silence by humming a melody about being too late. We did not appreciate it as the song really did not relate to missing a ferry because somebody drove the speed limit instead of her usual speed!
