Dear LPG,

I suppose I am a bit of a day dreamer and always have been, but when you are ‘young’, and by that I mean too young to be considered retired, there is, so often, no time for such pastimes.  I am fortunate enough to have one and I only have to take a look at my 48-year-old son’s lifestyle now to reflect on the days when, even when I ignore the modern technology aspect, I see a man working hard to keep his family protected and happy, and who has little time to pursue his own personal hobbies and passions.  Your ultimate objective may be something as ambitious as making a film or as simple as uncluttering your entirely cluttered home but your need to achieve, and be able to stand back one day with the ability to say ‘I did it’, is the most important aspect of the exercise.

Do you remember when you were that age and you made personal promises to get back to those things that you were always going to do but never got round to when  you were younger?  My plea for all the pensioners who read this website today is that you have not let the apathy that so often arrives a few years after the retirement stage of your life get in the way.

There are many reasons to give up on a lifelong dream but old age is not one of them, neither is the fact that you don’t think that you will have time to finish your project.  At least get started no matter how long you have left it and how silly you think the people around you will think it.

There are many people who have been very successful in their later years, and Steven Hawkins will always be the ultimate illustration of someone who did not let disability get in the way, but while becoming famous for achieving your lifelong goal could be an option there have to be many other reasons for embarking on the journey; the ultimate being self-satisfaction.   

The only thing that should colour the extent to which you ‘follow your dream’ should be your physical and practical ability to do so, and at this point we have to remember that there are many young people who are physically limited or who suffer from varying amounts of chronic pain just like us elders, but don’t let that get in the way.  The secret is to revise your project in a way that will be achievable for you whatever it is.

So my message today is basically: - pensioners follow your lifelong dream…

OH, Honor Oak

OH asked us to remind readers of a few people who followed their dreams at a time when many would have been thinking about retiring, and to the point where they can now be described as famous …

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