Dear LPG,

I am not sure if this makes much sense , but it is something that I really would like to share.

I am a very busy pensioner at the moment.  I have quite a large family and I am able to get involved taking in a bit of grandchild babysitting while my friends and I meet regularly at clubs and day centres.  Church also plays a big part in my life and I also spend quite a lot of time visiting friends who are no longer able to get out and about, and also indulge in running errands for them.  Combined with visits to my GP and the hospital to maintain my growing health problems, I have quite a busy life, but every now and then I take a little time out to take a look around and get a feel for how life is treating some of the people that keep my life so busy.

Over the years, I have watched some of them change from being really busy people who are so busy that it is hard to synchronise our lives so that we can find the same couple of hours to meet up, while events in the lives of some of the others have had the effect of taking away the need for them to perform many of the tasks that they so enjoyed doing.

It can be quite daunting when circumstances change in any stage of our life, but when we are older it is perhaps the hardest thing to cope with.  Younger people think that it only happens to them, but I think that us older people are affected quite badly too.

When younger, a relationship split can be hard to handle, but for working people the need to get up every morning and start the commute, or continue to look after the children, can sometimes make such an occurrence a little easier to cope with. 

As we get older we can feel especially vulnerable, because the social support systems begin to be stripped away and the few that are left become so much more important.  Children get immersed in their own problems and these days they are highly likely to live miles away, both geographically and with the stage of life that they are up to.  Your grandchildren are the focus of your children and illness becomes a big part of the lives of ourselves, friends and our siblings as we get older.

It is vital that we remember to stay in touch with our friends and family as much as we can.  We need to make the effort to pick up the phone and find out how they are, regularly. 

Sense of belonging is a life line that we cannot afford to lose.  So, while we can, I appeal to fellow readers to keep up with the people around them, because while that sense of belonging that we all take for granted while we are younger becomes more difficult to maintain. It is one of the best ways of ensuring that there are still a few people who will make the time to keep in touch with us later in our lives.   

GL, Lee

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