A thing that wears magenta exercise suits in public. Not all of us fall that far. But we each lose ground in the beauty arena. It's a part of nature. The red breasts of female robins aren't really red at all.
Human mothers fade, too.
Exhaustion dulls our skin. Gray strips shine from our hair. Curves get too soft or too angular. We lose power, too. In the 10 years she's worked there, she has continually missed out on promotions she would have easily gotten had she worked full time.