HILLARY CLINTON: TURNING FIFTY

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But there are other forces besides the empty nest compelling Hillary to move on to the next project. Unlike those of her most recent predecessors, who were nearer retirement age when they left the White House, Hillary's chance to make a mark doesn't end when the helicopter rises from the South Lawn for the last time. A few months ago, she mused to her friend actress Mary Steenburgen that she and Bill might be itinerant college professors for a while, taking stints at various campuses as they sort out their future. On the other hand, says Steenburgen, the idea of putting down roots has more than a little appeal to a woman who has spent most of her adult life in government housing, with each election bringing the prospect of eviction. The President's vision has them sitting on a bench somewhere, "old people laughing about our lives and not begrudging young people having more time than we did."

Chances are, none of those fantasies will completely satisfy Hillary, who says, "I'll go on to do something else that I find challenging and interesting." Last Friday, Hillary and her entourage hiked a slick, muddy trail outside the remote Panamanian village of Chica, where a dozen peasant women were waiting at their nursery of guavas, peppermint and poinsettias. On a dilapidated bamboo bench, Faustina Nunez told the First Lady in Spanish of the dream they had also harvested from the soil. "Our community could see we were a society of strong-willed women, and we were not going to step backward," Nunez said. For Hillary and her generation, that is a yearning that needs no translation.

--With reporting by Ann Blackman/Washington