Hello, Happy New Year! And welcome to the Wise Not Withered podcast. We are on Season 4, and this is episode number 11. Today’s guest is Helen W. I found her on Instagram. Her username is 50_over_and_beautiful. And I really loved the vibe of her profile, just so colorful, she looks so happy. Lots of modeling, clothes and food and drinks, and all kinds of different places that she has traveled to. There’s a lot of different performances where she has sung. And she talks about all of those things in our interview. She is truly a citizen of the world. She grew up... And actually, I’ll let her tell you where she grew up and where she has lived all throughout her life. It’s pretty interesting, pretty unique. In addition to all the places where she has lived and visited, she talks about her pretty complex job, and also the intricate family dynamics, of her upbringing with her family of origin, and her dynamic with her son currently. And she also talks about just her experience being an older woman in today’s society... What that means, how she’s been treated by other women, especially—older and younger, and a pretty interesting work-life balance that she has maintained for a pretty long time. So without further ado, here is Helen!

All right, so what is your age?

I just turned 60!

Oh, you just turned 60! When was that?

I turned 60 in September. I think before turning 60, you have this fear, like, “Oh my god… Another decade.” And people regard you as “old”. You think of retirement, yeah… But yeah, I was thinking, because at 60, you get this “Joy Card” in Hong Kong. And then you get like discounts for transportation.

Ohh okay!

Anywhere you go, you’ll be paying 2 Hong Kong dollars. Which means everybody will know that you’re 60. And I was thinking, before I got the card, “Oh, would I actually use it? I’ll use it when I’m alone… If I’m with people, would I use it? Cause then everybody would know I’m 60.” Then when I got it, it’s like… What the heck! Just use it! I mean, I’m entitled to this! (Laughs) This discount to travel, because I’ve actually lived on Earth for 60 years, and contributed, and yeah! I should be proud!

Amazing! I love that!! And what did you call it? Just a discount card? Or did it have a special name?

It’s called a Joy Card!

A Joy Card!

Which is is nice name, isn’t it?

Right!

It’s a nice name, right? Yeah.

I love that!!

Be happy! In your senior age. Yeah.

That is so cool!

Yeah.

Let’s see, so you live in Hong Kong right now. Did you grow up there? Where else have you lived?

Okay. Yeah… I’m quite multi-national, in terms of where I’ve lived. So I was born in Japan. My parents are from China. But I was born in Japan, Tokyo. So I’m Chinese, born in Japan. Okay then, I did not actually do schooling in Japan, cause the family moved. I moved with my mother to Macao. And then from Macao… My parents divorced, so we were living there with my mom—me and my brother, in Macao. And then she found someone and remarried—an Australian Chinese. So we all moved to Sydney.

Oh, wow!

So in my teens, I actually moved to Australia, and grew up in Sydney. Did my education there, did my university there. Then after a few years, I married a Malaysian Chinese. And we moved to Singapore. And then the relationship didn’t really work out, so my child was born in Singapore as well. So we divorced. And then the boss that I was working for, he was a Hong Kong Chinese, and he announced he was moving to Hong Kong, so would you like to come and work for me in Hong Kong? He just got a position, so he invited me if I was looking for something. So I said yeah okay, I’ll come along with you. So that’s how I ended up and stayed in Hong Kong.

Read the full transcript on wisenotwithered.com!