When I'm 64

Will you still need me when I’m 64?

More changes re retirement age and pension payments are under discussion – really bad news for some, while others may be pleased to be able to work longer.

I for one was devastated when I had to retire. I loved my job as a primary school head. Each day was different and I carefully planned ahead to bring new and interesting lessons for the children to enjoy. I had a wonderful team of dedicated teachers of various ages and found it inspiring and yet challenging to work with them. Why, oh why could I not continue?

Once retired it seemed that every day was the same and the year was no longer punctuated with school holidays.  Whereas before I often woke in the night with a new idea to put into practice, I now found nothing to strive for except things that would amuse hobbies or me that I had neglected. I no longer felt like a useful member of society.

If people are made to work longer, then society has to change its opinion of older people. Everyone is so ageist. No one it seems looks at us for what we can do, what we can undoubtedly contribute given the chance – all they see is an old person.

I may be 77 but I still work on a voluntary basis with younger people, whose company I enjoy. We teach each other – that is until they find out exactly how old I am. Then they treat me as old and decrepit. There are a great number of older people doing exceptional work in all walks of life, use them as an example, praise them instead of belittling us all and give us a chance to find jobs where we would be appreciated.

Please use us, as the Greeks did using their elder statesmen, to draw upon their vast experience and learn from their successes as well as from their failures.

For the past 10 years I have been trying to interest television producers to set me challenges to execute while they film them, to prove we oldies are not past it and could do many exciting things. I am not interested in the money (even if it might supplement my pension a little). I am only an ordinary person, and not a celebrity and like others my age, can now do things that I had no time for while building a career, raising a family and trying to be the perfect wife.

How did retirement affect you? What do you do to be a useful member of society?

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In Praise of Hospitals

In Praise of Hospitals

Why are so many people always ready to knock the Health Service? Television reportage brings us the sad stories of old people in hospitals sadly neglected and uncared for by the staff.

Well I am an old lady  (hey, who said that?). I never admit to being old, only senior in years, but have unfortunately had to spend quite some time in various hospitals and cannot praise them enough.

First I had several visits as an in-patient at the Royal Free Hospital in London. Then I was transferred to the Royal Brompton Hospital, where I had to spend several two week periods, twice a year. As the name implies, I was treated most royally at all times. My stay at the Princess Royal in Sussex was also excellent.

In each hospital the staff did their best to make myself and the other patients around me comfortable, nursing us with patience and care. Nothing was too much trouble. Obviously some members of staff were more conscientious than others and like all of us had their good and bad days – we are after all only human.

The food was excellent and we had a great choice from the varied menu.

Each hospital is like a mini metropolis with shops, banks, restaurants as well as art exhibitions (food for the soul). Every morning the little city awakes to the hustle and bustle of people running this way and that. Doctors, nurses, health workers, admin staff, ward orderlies and pharmacist go about their allotted tasks, be it in the Out Patients for consultation, in the wards or operating theatres. Patients, visitors and nurses mingle and interact.

At the end of each day as if a curtain falls, the hospital becomes silent as people go to sleep, and nurses glide noiselessly about. The next morning another busy day dawns and the ‘city’ awakes once more.

Everyone works long, arduous hours due to financial short -comings and the cutting back of staff but the majority are professional doing the best they can.  So please let us sing the praises of all the hard working staff.

77 And Ready For Anything

Hi!  I am just a regular golden oldie oldie of 77. Hey, what is age anyway?  It is only a number and one is as old as the young man one feels- so bring them on.  No seriously, society is very wrong to be so ageist. We still feel and think as a young person even if the body gets older and may not be able to do everything it used to. I get so furious when people put us into old age categories. My blood begins to boil and I want to show them just what we are made of.

I am therefore on a mission to change the way others think about me. I am incensed that despite my considerable accomplishments, energy and experience, my age and the assumptions that surround it, render me invisible and worthless to the mainstream.
So what have I got planned? Well I want to challenge these assumptions, and open up a dialogue, a forum and bring to the fore  all the issues, concerns and joys of being a person who just happens to be older.
I have always lived life to the full. Have been a wife, a mother of five, a children’s nurse, a teacher, a Primary School Principal, an Inspector of Education, an Education Lecturer as well as a house cleaner, washer upper in restaurants, a caterer. You name it- the list goes on and on. – oh, I’ve been there, done it  , and  Got the T shirt, the video and the DVD!

I want to encourage others to reveal their true selves and not put up with being restricted to the back room. We've got interests, needs, concerns,passions, challenges, disappointments, joys- the stuff of life still running through our veins, with all the shadows and light.So let's get talking, let's get sharing. Let's   find our voices and reveal who we are, and what we still want to do and what we have done.

I want to hear what what you feel,  what you have to say.

 I want to learn to fly, water-ski, paint, sculpt- and that is just for starters.

JOIN ME !