Dear LPG, 

Here is a thought.

As we get older, it is common knowledge that appearance changes.
We all expect to get some grey hair and a bit shorter, but what about our feet?

I think we often forget them during life, but when we get older, and it is not so easy to reach them, they become a costly part of the body to care for. I don’t know about anyone else, but the first thing is that the corns and bunions start to appear, which means that we need to pay someone else to do the foot grooming for us while my toenails are getting thicker and harder to cut anyway.
And then there is the fact that when you have the most extensive collection of shoes you are ever likely to amass, they stop fitting correctly.

In the late 1950s, when I was in my twenties, I always thought I had big feet. I would go into the shoe shops and find that my size 7s were challenging to get covered in something ladylike and trendy. Size 6 shoes were about the largest in most shops back then, but now I often find size eight or even size nine shoes on the shelves. I remember wearing higher heels because somehow my feet looked a bit smaller when the heel was up in the air, no matter how hard that made walking around. Then came trainers, which save knees and ankles from the impact of everyday life, but I have also read that they can allow your feet to spread and get wider. 
According to the internet, I have found that your feet are likely to get a bit bigger as you grow older, although if you lose weight, they might also get just a bit smaller. So, assuming that the size has not changed, it is not a good idea.

When buying at a shoe shop, we usually go by feel, and, often, they feel fine in the shop, but after a few hours, my feet sometimes tell me a different story, and that pair would join the others, never to be worn again. Perhaps my assessment of their feelings was influenced by how they looked the first time I tried them on back in the day.

But these days, buying a pair for the older foot is more and more becoming something that I and quite a few older people I know do online; the big problem is making sure that they will be comfortable and fit well when they arrive. There is nothing more annoying than having to send them back. I found a few videos that might help with the measurements and thought it would be good to share what I have learned.

NE, Rushey Green 

NE shares what she has learned about measuring feet for online shoes… 

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… and offers some other shoe-related information she found…

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