'You're old, you sag, get over it!'

From dodgy bladders to divorce to the unerring power of friendship, guest columnist Saima Mir finds acceptance and support while rewatching The Golden Girls

Rose, Dorothy, Blanche and Sophia stand the test of time in The Golden Girls

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I’m making my way through re-runs of The Golden Girls on Disney+. It’s my happy place, and reminds me of a simpler time.

I first watched The Golden Girls as a teenager in the 80s, when it aired on the newly formed Channel 4. In my memory, the four single women who live in the same house in Miami, were ancient. So, imagine my surprise when I discovered that Blanche Dubois, the Southern Belle of the show, was only 53 when the series started. That means she was not much older than me, but her husband had died and her children had grown and moved on. My children are still in primary school, and I’m hoping my partner will stick around for a few more decades.

That difference aside, I was hooked from the pilot episode, when they started discussing the perils of ingesting liquids after noon. There’s no way my teenage body would have understood the importance of those lines when I first heard them, but my 48-year-old body feels seen and heard, and no longer alone in those moments when my bladder awakens me at 3am. In those moments, when I try and pretend I can fall back asleep without getting out of bed and making a trip across the hall to the loo, I think of Dorothy, Rose, Blanche, and Sophia.

They may have dressed older that I do, but their conversations are the same.