Waiting for a Party

“Vesna Main remains a daring, unpredictable writer” The Irish TimesWhat is it like to be married for thirty years but experience your first orgasm only after being widowed in your sixties?How does an older woman change once she discovers her sexuality?Could she have prevented the death of her husband? Why did she wait for an hour before calling the ambulance once she heard the thud of his body hitting the floor?Claire Meadows, 92, a retired piano teacher, reflects on her life, while waiting to be taken to a 102nd birthday party of a friend, a prolific writer of detective stories. She has baked a cake for him, as she has done for the last seventy years.She looks back on her marriage to Bill as a happy time and remembers without bitterness her husband’s secret visits to women whose calling cards, complete with pictures of them in states of undress, were scattered in the bottom drawer of his desk.As a young woman she nurtured two ambitions: to become a concert pianist and to have children. When the former became incompatible with her role of a supportive wife, she accepted the situation and looked forward to becoming a mother.But month after month brought disappointment; her kind husband was sympathetic, always ready to offer a shoulder to cry on.Years later, she discovered the reason why she was unable to fall pregnant. And it was nothing to do with her.Released from the bonds of her marriage, and encouraged by her feisty friend Patricia, a single mother, with few inhibitions, Claire embarks on a series of sexual encounters. She even fulfils one of the dreams of her youth in a way she could never have imagined.As she lies in bed, waiting to be taken to the party, Claire relives the details of her affairs with relish. She continues to harbour sexual fantasies and wonders whether there is someone who could still find her desirable.