I have a new bra. I’ve had a series of bras over the years–skimpy bras for young girls, more substantial bras with points, big-girl bras with underwire, big-girl bras without underwire, and recently, even a bra that promised to bring lift back to what has fallen (didn’t work).

A couple weeks ago, I was watching QVC and another kind of bra was introduced, a “Tommie Copper Shoulder Support Bra with Front Z” – a bra that looked like a summer halter. It was not cheap but I decided to try it. Love the new bra – fits snugly, and makes me feel kinda like I’m in a nice hug all day long.

AND I don’t jiggle.

I don’t have my mother’s boobs; hers were small, and even in her 80s her baby faucets were “up” (not down). Me? I must have inherited my grandmother’s chest– nice when I was young but with menopause, a weight gain and gravity did its best to flip any muscle up there to mush. Of course when I went swimming with no clothes (I have a private pool) those old-lady boobs perked right up on the top of the water. I even had to invent some new sort of stroke to swim around them!

Thinking back over several decades and several more decades, I remember “developing” and being rather sky about letting my mother see what was happening. I can remember a trip to a shopping center to try on clothes and asking my mother to step out of the dressing room while I changed.

Then came the good days. I even spent many hours just admiring my chest in the mirror – great. And a couple men in my life liked touching them. And I liked it, too.

Then came Menopause and changes. It doesn’t happen quickly ( I lied earlier). Mother Nature takes time and before you know it, your pride and joys are facing south. Underwire helps lift the load, but then one gets red marks under the items being lifted. And cotton bras without underwire lift but cause deep ridges on your shoulders. The ridges are a small price to pay, however, for not having cancer in those boobs as my Aunt Dorothy had.

But finally, at an age when a few of my acquaintances are being fitted with outfits for a funeral, I have a new bra I like and one that hugs me and has wide straps that don’t cause shoulder ridges.

I like the new bra so much I just bought two more, one in black and one in tan. And if I didn’t have this column, no one else would know my good bra news. No pictures, though.