Dear LPG

I know that it has been said before and it will be said again but there is something I keep meaning to write down and send to you, which I forget until this time of the day.

I am one of those many older people who live on my own and find it really difficult to sleep at night.  I am writing this down while sitting in bed and it is now 04:24 in the morning.   I have a couple of friends who tell me that they use this time to phone friends who live on the other side of the world because it is daytime for those friends and the ideal time for a catch up, but I don’t have that luxury.  So the radio is on and I can hear all the odd creaks that the gas and water pipes make because it is quite cold and I have again switched the system on early.

I suppose that I am one of the lucky ones because I have seen the statistics and know that another common trait for people my age is pain which really inhibits sleep; I don’t have so much of that that it stops me sleeping but what I am doing and where I am, right at this moment, has reminded me about how important it is to have at least one person that you can confide in. 

As we get older it is often the case that we have lost so many of our friends but It is when this time of the day arrives that I remember how important it is to have at least one person in this life that  you feel you can confide in; that you feel that you can tell anything to without worrying about who they are going to pass it on to; somebody that you can admit your mistakes to; somebody that you can tell all the stuff that will make you feel really vulnerable without worrying that it will go any further. 

I read in your paper, some years ago that the test of a true friend is being confident that if you needed to, at this time in the morning, they would not mind being woken up just because you wanted to talk.   At my time of life, or any time of life, it does not have to be your spouse and a friend of either gender will do, it could be someone you have known since you both were children, one of your own children or someone you met a couple of years ago in your local lunch club or exercise class, but everyone needs to have someone. 

I am lucky because I do have a very special daughter who fits the bill but, rather than bothering her this morning, I thought I would just say it again and send the message to LPG.  

 If you have one, now that we are at the beginning of a New Year, we need to appreciate that friend and remember how important it is to have each other to really talk to.  If you have not got that person in place it is time to build a special relationship even though building that amount of trust can be a really risky business in as much as trust is a really priceless commodity on so many levels.

I know that the time for a New Year resolution has come and gone but working on making a new special friend or remembering how special the one you have is, is a resolution that you can work on at any time in the year.

DL, Beckenham