Share and tell

Show and tell.

That’s the shorthand Dee Montalbano uses to describe what Over the Moon Ovations does at its meetings.

However, it would definitely not be accurate to say that this group of middle-aged women learned everything they needed to know in kindergarten.

Instead, the group, which meets monthly at the Meadows Branch Library in Boulder, aims to take a look at the accumulated wisdom of the 20 to 50 women who attend — women ranging in age from their 40s to 80s, who have something to tell — and often show — about how they’ve come to view the second half of life.

“There’s an awareness of being on a threshold and making choices,” says Deb Fink Windrum, a librarian at the University of Colorado, who co-founded the group with Montalbano.

Many women who attend are in a state of transition or want to be. Some are divorced or have lost a partner; others are new to Boulder. Most have had a career, and many have also raised their children. Many are now ready emotionally and financially to take a risk.

Montalbano and Windrum met at a bus stop on the way to different events at the University of Colorado and fell into an easy conversation about life after passing 50.

“We hit it off,” says Montalbano, 74. “I told her about a dream I had where I heard women’s voices that said, ‘Speak louder.’”

Windrum came up with the name for the group and set about getting the library to sponsor the event.

“When I met Dee, she was talking about her dream about ‘speak louder, speak louder,’” Windrum says. “It occurred to me that there must be many women in the second half of life looking for an opportunity to share wisdom and to be with other women wanting to hear.”

The group got its start in January of last year. At each meeting, one woman serves as a presenter.

“(Over the Moon) was designed as a platform for individual women to share their stories, their craft, their expertise and their personal journey that brought them to this place,” Montalbano says.

Her own journey brought her to Boulder in 1991 after a life in New York that included an unhappy marriage and divorce. She says her transformation was a matter of listening to her own strong intuitive voice, something she had buried for years.

“What I’ve realized in my own life (is that) mid-life is often a crossroads for women,” she says.

– By Cindy Sutter

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