Maxine, 75.
The writing friend’s prompt for me this week: A 75-year-old widow creates a dating profile.
My prompt for her: Explain your best friend through a color. Read her beautiful, endearing response here.
Whew. This one’s gonna be tough. I only have a week’s worth of dating profile experience. I also have to write as a woman. If only I had some feminine persona that exists just enough for me to abstract a life that’s opening and reconnecting again after many decades. If only, right?
[Image of an older, distinguished woman confidently sitting on the steps of an old observatory on an orange and cloudy autumn evening]
Maxine
75 - Berlin, Germany
Hamburger enthusiast and working author looking for a lovely soul to laugh at my first drafts and be the muse of my poems.
My writing has recently gone stale from being too grounded on this earth and I’m looking to meet someone who makes my words float among the stars. If that’s a bit much, I also bake a great cheesecake that keeps my neighbors from calling the cops when I practice my vocal ranges. We’ve been on good terms for the last thirty-something years.
I can only bake, though. Cooking needs some work. Pretty sure that’s what landed me here. Kidding, kidding.
[Image of Maxine daintily holding a 40 oz. mug bigger than her head and filled to the brim with the darkest stout]
Two truths and a lie. Ready?
I can solve a Rubik’s Cube in 47 seconds.
I relocated to Germany in 2025 after a bout of tax evasion from selling my first novel.
My favorite color is green.
Gave up? I thought so. My favorite color is actually red.
KIDDING. I can’t solve a Rubik’s Cube. KIDDING AGAIN. I lied twice.
[Image of Maxine playing a grand piano with a delinquent smile while an exhausted-looking security guard approaches]
Likes: ice cream, knitting, traveling, dusting, Thursdays, when Christine says ‘And that, dear, first revealed to me that I loved you,’ in Phantom of the Opera, sunflowers, the 15-meter dash to the kitchen when the kettle starts whistling, the first leaf to fall during autumn, telling your-mom jokes to my granddaughter, and checking for new episodes of The Sopranos; despite having outlived the entire cast and production crew, I still hope for a new season.
Dislikes: bad manners and cauliflower.
[Image of Maxine laughing while holding a capybara]
Rapid-fire round but you guess the questions.
Aquarius.
Slytherin.
Strawberry.
Quality.
Cold.
Three.
Night-owl.
Espresso.
Cats.
[Image of Maxine in a formal silver dress matching her hair, cheerfully toasting red wine at dinner with friends]
Send me the purposely worst pickup line you’ve heard in the past 50 years and grab the cutest little coffee with me.