Dr. Susan Meyer, author of Champagne Ladies, was interviewed recently, along with several of the Champagne Ladies in Susan’s book, by journalist Phyllis Haynes. If you think your last chapter is over, think again. Read the forward to the book (written by the Head Tomato) and watch this inspiring video .

Foreword to Champagne Ladies, Efferscent at Any Age

Foreword

Buckle up your seatbelts—your ideas about what “old” looks like are about to be delightfully upended. Dr. Susan Meyer has interviewed thirty-eight women who are redefining life in their sixties, seventies, eighties, and even nineties.

These are women who came of age in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s—decades that reshaped what women could do, dream, and become. They remember when a woman couldn’t get a credit card without a male co‑signer (thank you, Bella Abzug, for helping change that in 1974 with the Equal Credit Opportunity Act). They cheered Roe v. Wade. They pushed open the doors to the corner office, and if it didn’t open, they became their own boss. They tossed aside the pearls-and-sweater “Mom” archetypes they grew up with on TV and celebrated every time Mary Tyler Moore threw her hat in the air.

They fought the “isms” of their time—sexism, racism, antisemitism—and now they’re kicking the last “acceptable ism” to the curb—ageism.

Susan has championed these women in her book Fifty Over Fifty: Wise and Wild Women Creating Wonderful Lives (and You Can Too!), and now again as she revisits some of those voices and introduces new ones she admires. I’m honored to appear in both books—and honored to be her publisher for this one.

I’ve known Susan for many years—don’t ask how many, because at my age they all blur together and everything feels like it happened yesterday… or maybe five years ago. I believe we first met at a roundtable luncheon hosted by our mutual friend Randie Levine Miller, who loved gathering interesting women who didn’t yet know each other.

When it came time for introductions, Susan stood out. She was brief about herself and far more interested in asking thoughtful questions of the other women. And when Susan asks a question, she truly listens. She absorbs the answer, asks a follow‑up, and if she hears even a hint of hesitation about someone’s next chapter, she’s right there with encouragement. That is her superpower—and it’s what makes these thirty‑eight stories so compelling, inspiring, and wonderfully human.

Thank you, Susan, from all of us, for being a supportive friend, a gentle butt‑kicker, and a champion of women stepping boldly into their tomorrows.

Bette Davis famously said, “Growing old ain’t for sissies.” Well, let me assure you—there are no sissies in this book.

Cheryl Benton
The Three Tomatoes

Reprinted from Champagne Ladies, Effervescent at any Age, ©2026 Dr. Susan R. Meyer