Thought for the day: Give them the chance to moan about being old

I understand that getting old brings challenges, our bodies start to let us down a bit and we find that we cannot do all the things we like to do. What makes it worse is that often our bodies are ageing a lot faster than our minds. It’s frustrating.

Another thing I have found as I get older is that my emotions seem to have a mind of their own.

I cry more easily than I once did and I can be reduced to tears by the silliest of things. Watching some TV dramas is just too much and the phrase ‘tears before bedtime’ is popular in our house.

If I do start to cry, I have to try hard not to catch Mrs B’s eye because if I see her with a tear in her eye, it starts me off again!

One of the problems of ageing is that the group of people that surround us, our family and our friends, can start to shrink and some older people can start to feel very isolated.

They might have had a full social life at one time but now they sit at home, waiting for the postman or anyone to break the monotony of their day.

If you want to understand this feeling, try sitting at home for one day with no tv or radio or contact with the outside world...then try to imagine that feeling magnified over days, weeks, years.

I started by saying I hear people complaining about getting old and there’s the key.

If you know someone who is alone, why not go and give them a chance to have a moan about being old.

DREW BAXTER

Humanist