Dear LPG,

I was inspired to write this having seen a film, that I promised that I would see when it first came out in 2015, but I suppose because I have no one to go with, I don’t go out to the cinema often.  It is the second of a pair of films; I saw the first on television a while back and enjoyed it, but unusually I thought that the sequel was even better than the first. 

The film is called ‘The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’ which is about a group of older people who live in a hotel; that does not appear to be that interesting, but the very last words of the film are said by Dame Maggie Smith and they are so true.  Seeing the whole film inspired me as an older person but the very last words said in the very last scene says it all for me.

We older people say things back-to-front sometimes, but I think that that particular phrase needed to be turned on its head.  Instead of saying ‘There is no time like the present’  (which always implies our need to hurry), the last words of the film are ’There is no present like the time’, and whether we think that God or fate has given us the time we have been privileged to spend on this earth so far, the phrase reminds me that we need to savour every moment, every bite of food, every minute spent with family and friends,  every conversation we have, every bit of music that has had an effect on us, every moment we take to look in the mirror and like who we see looking back at us and everything we have aspired and will aspire to do.  In other words, every bit of this life we have been given. 

It is a thought that I think I will hold onto in those times when I am feeling really down, and If there are any readers out there who have not seen it, please do, I hope that it will inspire and encourage…

SE, Lewisham

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