Dear LPG, 

I am guessing that I am an average seventy-something-year-old pensioner.  

When I got to retirement, I was under no misconception. I knew I would not be the sort of old girl that stopped doing everything. I see retirement as the time when the law says that you no longer have to work for a living unless you want to or think that you have to because of financial restraints, but, despite not having any of those, it did not take me too long to work out that there is no pleasure in living a life where you have nothing to do all day. I don’t have a large family and I live alone, which worked well when my job was my focus, and, after a couple of months of not doing very much, I worked out that I was not ready to hang up my work-hat and live the lazy life.

I had an initial retirement plan, as we all do, and after the holiday and a little bit of a rest, I decided that I would do what I always wanted to do, and that is a job where you can see the whole picture. I think that so many people working in offices spend their time on a conveyer belt, and that was me. My job was an accounts-bought ledger for a publishing firm I had worked with for years, and the only thing I knew about the business was the bit that I was responsible for. I had no interest in the publication, and I had no interest in how beneficial it was to its readers. The only thing I could tell you is the price of the adverts that I was responsible for sending the invoices out for.

Then I decided that it was time to do a bit of volunteering, and I found myself doing accounting admin for a little older people’s lunch club charity. I now see the whole picture, and we are all involved in the decision-making, which can sometimes be financially challenging. Still, when everyone is interested in solving problems, the little successes are much more satisfying.  

It is often said that the most important thing anyone can have at any time in life is feeling needed. When I left work, I thought that my usefulness would be over, but everyone has the skill to offer, and can I say that, through my voluntary work, I have just realised how important we older people can be to others.

Perhaps I am trying to say that now the pandemic is over, so many of the little charities around could use all the help they can get. There is guaranteed a way to get involved in some voluntary work; if you can, it is truly worth it to you and the organisation you decide to help.

TH, Catford 

LPG found a few places where you can get started…

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