Getting Over Getting Older

PHOTO (COLOR): Esther Ritz, 54, mother, grandmother, lawyer, ex-fundraiser, and ex-real estate developer, says she believes in "bending with life." Now the Texas native is studying to be a landscape designer. "I always advise people to follow their dreams and to stay out of the sun," she says.

Susan Scarf Merrell is the author of The Accidental Bond: The Power of Sibling Rivalry, out in paperback this January. She has just completed her first novel.