By Eleanore Wells

The “other woman” has traditionally been the scorned party, a negative force. But is this changing? Is adultery becoming more acceptable? Rather than painting all adultery with a broad brush, it seems we may now be seeing gradations of “how wrong is it?”

By Roz Warren

Joan Price is a cheerleader for everything fun and erotic for those of us who are getting a little long in the tooth. She’s amassed a wealth of nuts-and-bolts information about what does and doesn’t work when it comes to senior shenanigans, and she’s eager to share it.

A mother teaches her daughter about “true” role models; a film counters the stories of women instrumentalists in the jazz movement; Marie Dutton Brown traces her journey in the publishing world over the last 43 years; Dr. Jackson Katz argues that violence against women should be reframed as a man’s isssue; and, after they’ve attracted more than 10 million YouTube views, meet the Internet’s “Cutest Couple Ever.”

By Patricia Yarberry Allen, MD and Evelyn Hecht, PT, ATC

A menopausal woman loses approximately 70 percent of her estrogen levels, and when she has not had intercourse for three years, this combination causes the pelvic-floor muscles to tighten, making intercourse painful. The old motto “Use it or lose it” is very applicable here!

By Patricia Yarberry Allen, M.D.

My mother’s favorite annual event was her Kentucky church’s Mother-Daughter Night. I was invited every year, but never made it. Mommie reminded me when my sisters were unavailable that she “had to adopt a daughter” for that night, but “Never mind.” Well, she did mind, and I did know it.

By Susan Soriano

My late mother, Marcelina, wasn’t a wild thing, but she had heart and she had grit. She could snake clogged pipes, wring the neck of a bound-for-supper chicken—and brag about being the only hospital worker on her shift to give a big hug to the AIDS patient in the corner room.

By Toni Myers

Mother did outrageous things—cut the telephone cord when she thought Father had gotten too many calls (you have to be old to understand that this was just not done). She covered our dog Hansy with Chanel No. 5 after he got into the dead fish by the lake water. She drove across state lines to get fireworks in Ohio, setting them off like a maniac in northern Michigan . . .

This Mother’s Day, we share with you the gifts we gave our mothers that, often to our great surprise (and relief), lit up their world. These gifts—some frivolous, some extravagant, some well-planned, others whimsically chosen—would turn out to create lasting memories of our relationships with our mothers.

By Diane Dettmann

Standing in my bedroom, dressing for my retirement party, I heard a tiny voice filtering down the hallway and through the door. I hobbled into the living room; my eyes landed on a petite lady, dressed in a blue suit, relaxing in our swivel rocking chair. She smiled at me. My first thought was, “Oh my God, that’s my future mother-in-law!”

By Jennifer Cheyne

Somehow, working two jobs, my mother—widowed at 23—raised her three girls. We had a TV set and a house in a safe neighborhood and got educations and survived long enough to hate her for all that she wasn’t.

In this week’s Wednesday 5: Afghan Journalist Najiba Ayubi wins a ‘Courage in Journalism’ Award; a father’s well-intentioned letter to his young daughter about keeping a “man’s interest” turns controversial; the “Great Gatsby” film unearths a myriad of misrepresentations and stereotypes about the 1920s flapper; “Scandal,” as ridiculous as the plots are, works because of cast chemistry; and a poignant video re-imagines a world where hate crimes don’t exist.

Letty Cottin Pogrebin’s wit, forthrightness, and perceptiveness make the book special. She calmly addresses the fears and selfish motivations we visitors would never admit to, and offers counsel on dilemmas we’d have no idea how to handle.

Leslie Morgan Steiner reminds us that domestic violence can happen to anyone; student-loan debt is growing fastest among adults 60 and older; what happens when you replace food aid with cash payments?; righting a 22-year-old wrong done to architect Denise Scott Brown; and Indian women plant trees each time a girl is born in their village.

By Chris Lombardi

In “Holding Silvan,” Monica Wesolowska explores with honesty the kind of questions most of us don’t want to think about — the kind of choices people make for their loved ones when they’re about to die.

By Hilda Hutcherson, M.D.

“Your story,” Dr. Hilda writes to Marcia, “is one that I hear almost every day. It is not easy to take care of a home and two very busy adolescents. At the end of the day, sex can begin to feel like one more chore that you need to do for someone else.”