Borders of Age and Identity: Aging as a Migrant Woman in Jackie Kay’s “Out of Hand” and “Mrs Vadnie Merlene Sevlon”

Abstract

This article explores the often-overlooked journeys of aging women who have built lives far from their homelands. Jackie Kay’s short stories “Out of Hand” (2002) and “Mrs Vadnie Marlene Sevlon” (2012) portray two Jamaican women who migrated in their youth and confront the challenges of aging in unfamiliar contexts. Rose, a Windrush generation nurse, reflects on racism, retirement, and loss as she embarks on an introspective negotiation of identity and in-betweenness. Vadnie, in her middle age, copes with displacement and estrangement by constructing a parallel life aligned with normative expectations in the UK. By situating these narratives within literary gerontology, the article demonstrates how age, gender, and migration intersect to shape migrant women’s experiences of loneliness and identity negotiation, thereby expanding discussions of both diaspora and aging.