MY PERSONAL BLOG

Lisa Miller · Columbus, Ohio · November 2026

I Was Sure Cushioned Comfort Shoes Would Make Me Look Older Than 64

What started as a little doubt turned into the pair I reach for almost every morning.

It was a Saturday morning in late September. I had been standing at the stove for barely an hour, making pancakes for my grandkids, and my feet were already telling me to sit down.

I own plenty of shoes. Most of them look fine, and most of them hurt by the afternoon. The few that don't hurt are the old sneakers I wear with everything, whether they go with my outfit or not.

My sister Karen sent me a link to the Janina shoes from Laura & Rose. My first reaction was to close it. Cushioned comfort shoes? I pictured the heavy beige shoes my mother wore in her seventies.

Still, I was curious enough to look.

1What caught my eye

I kept going back to the pictures on my phone. I liked the soft, matte leather look, the rounded toe that didn't look pinched, and the single strap across the top with the little round button.

The strap was what made me hesitate. A Mary Jane felt like something from a school uniform, and I wasn't sure it would look right on a grown woman with my kind of wardrobe.

At 64, I didn't want shoes that made me look like I had given up. But I also didn't want to keep coming home and kicking my shoes off the second I walked in the door.

I decided to give them a try, in brown.

2Opening the box at my kitchen table

The package came on a Tuesday. I opened it at the kitchen table with my coffee still warm, and the first thing I noticed was how light they were for such a thick sole.

I slipped them on right there in the kitchen. The strap opened all the way, so I didn't have to bend and wiggle my foot in. It closed with one press.

Then I just stood there for a minute. My toes had room. The sole felt soft under my heel, even on our hard kitchen floor. And with my jeans, they looked a lot more normal than I had feared. Not old-fashioned. Just neat.

I was pleasantly surprised.

3The first real test: a long walk after the rain

That Thursday it had rained all morning. In the afternoon I wore them on my usual loop around the neighborhood, which is about forty minutes if I don't stop to talk to anyone. I always stop to talk to someone.

The sidewalks were wet and covered in leaves, which is exactly where I usually walk like I'm on ice. These felt steady. The sole grips, and I didn't catch myself looking down at every step.

When I got home, I noticed something I hadn't felt in a long time. My feet were tired in a normal way, not in that burning way that makes me want to sit on the bottom stair.

4A full day with the grandkids

The real test was the following weekend, when I had Emma and Noah for the whole day. Park, grocery store, a playground, more grocery store, and a lot of standing around in the kitchen.

Normally that kind of day means changing into slippers by four o'clock. This time I kept them on until the kids went home.

My neighbor Carol saw me in the driveway and asked if they were new. She said they looked comfortable but still "put together." That was exactly the word I had been hoping for.

That was when I realized these weren't going to sit in the closet.

5I ended up with more than one color

After a couple of weeks in the brown pair, I went back to look at the other colors. The green had caught my eye from the start, and I could already see it with my cream cardigan and navy slacks.

I ordered the green. Then, a little later, the burgundy. My husband Tom took this picture by our front door and asked how many pairs of the same shoe one woman needs. I told him that was not the point.

Each color has its own look, but the fit and that soft sole stay the same. I don't have to think about which pair will hurt. None of them do.

6What I paid

When I went back to the Laura & Rose website for the green pair, the Janina was still at the lower price I had paid the first time.

If you've been looking for something like this for your own days on your feet, it may be worth a look at the colors and sizes. I'm glad I didn't close that link from Karen.

My old shoes next to the Janina

I have worn them almost every day for five weeks, which is more than I can say for anything else in my closet. Will they suit every woman my age? I can't promise that. I only know what my feet felt at the end of that long Saturday, and what Carol said in the driveway.

What did they cost?

I paid $59.95 for my first pair. The page showed $299.95 as the earlier price. A few things I wrote down for Karen when she asked:

I'm still the same woman who stood at the stove that Saturday morning, wondering when I'd get to sit down.

The difference is that now I don't think about my feet all day. And that makes the days with the grandkids a lot more fun.

Lisa

A personal blog post by Lisa Miller · Columbus, Ohio