Dear LPG,

I would like to add a little note to something that I read on the news pages of your website not so long ago.  The writer was talking about losing things and I agree with all that she had to say (►►►).  

I know it was really silly but after the months of being restricted to the house for so much of the time, I ventured out, just down the road for a bit one day not so long ago.

By the time I got back my wallet was gone.  I did the step retracing exercise which only emphasised the fact that it had to have been lost while I was out.  I reconciled myself to that fact and luckily, there was not that much money inside, so I phoned the bank and the Nectar card people to report the loss and the replacements were in progress very quickly.

As ever the things I was not going to be able to replace were a couple of business cards with addresses that I needed to keep and the pictures of my sons and their families who now live in the USA.  Until the pandemic they used to visit regularly and I do see them a bit more often these days because the last year has forced me to learn about video calling, but having them in my back pocket somehow made me feel closer to them.  For all that, I know that I will be able to organise new pictures soon enough, but there is the feeling of losing a personal part of you that cannot be replaced.

I phoned London Transport’s lost property office suspecting that I may have lost it on the bus, but all I got was a recorded message telling me to go online and leave a description.

I am not a complete ignoramus. I have learnt a little about doing things on a computer, but filling in online forms worries me, although I have a friend who I could pester and ask to do it for me.

It must be said that we older people do forget a little more than our younger counterparts and I also suspect that we are often easier prey for pickpockets.  Unlike the youngsters who seem to have learnt to be happy replacing their possessions for better versions at a moment’s notice, we are the individuals who are likely to want their original belongings back if possible. 

I know that there is no obligation for any organisation to provide human help these days but am I the only one who would have appreciated hearing a reassuring voice at the other end of that telephone under what I suspect would be a more upsetting circumstance for an older person than for one of the young?

It is just another indication that the establishment only cares about money and continues to teach the young that the internet saves time so that they can continue not to care about anything else…

SI, Essex

LPG found the form that SI is referring to just in case it helps…

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