Lets E-lim-i-nate the Negative! Old Age is a Great Age.
For the majority Later years are great years! Why so much sad negativity everywhere?
Let’s shout it!
For the majority Later years are great years! Why so much sad negativity everywhere?
Let’s shout it!
Retired’ is not an occupation, but there it is, on the form, at the bottom of the list.
Or maybe, even worse, you are expected to tick ‘None‘. But that isn’t true, is it? We haven’t stopped.
Hearing the stories was my first wake up call to the problem of stereotyping in old age.
So angry at the unthinking ageism they revealed, and so sad that the quality of life these people were living was just not recognised.
One of the many delightful surprises in this Strange Land of Old Age, has been this calm acceptance, this adjustment to later life. The change in the focus of pleasures that one cannot imagine at all when you are younger.
Love that in my lifetime I have seen the great industrial cities of the UK at their most productive but dirty stage. Saw them collapse and suffer and am now seeing them rebuilding and seriously re greening themselves: Sheffield, Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester, Glasgow… And proud of it too. They are amazing places.
‘You are old Grandma Williams,’ the young one said,
‘But your hair has not yet gone white
and yet you repeatedly stay in your bed.
Do you think at your age that is right?’
The moment they feel gravity, the Knees are on strike. “Dont” they scream “ Dont you dare move!” Threats of unknown horrors form worrying clouds.
So what do you do?