Dear LPG,

I have noticed that while the younger members of our society have had to go out and about regardless of the past year’s self-isolation restrictions, many of the people of my age that I have kept in touch with have not been anywhere since the first lockdown started.  I think as an older person there are two main bits of advice that really impacted on me when this pandemic first began.  The first was the importance of staying in touch with our friends and the other was that we oldies were likely to become really ill if we came into contact with the virus.

Many of us older people who regularly went out and about before staying at home became the norm, had friends and family who did their shopping for them and it was not long before there was no reason to go out of the house at all.  After all, this was exactly what the government told us to do.  I know quite a few friends that I kept in contact with by telephone, who stopped going anywhere with a trip to the dust bin being the furthest distance that they have ventured away from their front doors for quite a while. 

I just want to remind everyone that the local park is out there and a fairly safe place to go for a bit of exercise for the mind and body.   I admit that since the first lockdown started, my son who lives fairly locally to me, has regularly come to visit a couple of times a week with a bag or two of groceries which he would leave at the front door with a wave and a smile.  As the weather got better he started suggesting that we take a walk round the park which I declined. Then came the day when he threatened to stay in his car outside my front door in protest, so I put my coat and mask on just to get rid of him. 

I forgot how nice it is to just nod or smile at people as they pass by, and I have also found it refreshing to watch the real world go by as opposed to the one we are getting far too used to seeing on the television.  Watching the children playing, the dog walkers dog-walking and the joggers jogging now that the weather is getting better is quite refreshing and I have even got quite used to venturing out on my own from time to time.

For years the park down the road from my house has been the main short cut to my nearest bus stop and I have rushed my way through it on the way from or to one place or another on countless occasions, but just taking a leisurely walk around the perimeter path has kept me active and somehow in touch with the rest of the world.   

They say if you don’t use it you will lose it and I think that that truism applies to more than physical exercise.  There is something special about being able to connect with the reality outside your house and too many of us have forgotten how to.  So I want to remind those readers who have really not been anywhere for a while, to follow the distance rules, and if you can find a neighbour to meet up with while you walk so much the better, but just take a walk down to your local park from time to time. 

MA, Deptford