The Elderly, The strongest of our race.

Now, perhaps, I have a penchant for older folk.

Perhaps? no, it's clear, I do. The generations that preceded our own have been privy to things we will never know, as we are to our own followers, the children in elementary & college right now.

Imagine the hardship, the generosity, level of community & accepted norms that today we would be  no less than appalled by?

Or what about the strength, commitment & adaptability times gone past required.

Everything is fine. War.

Restart.

''Why is daddy different?''

The world we live in now, these established 'democracies' as much as we complain about them, grant us peace we will NEVER be able to appreciate.

Of course there are wars raging today that we in the 'western world' hear nothing about & choose not to seek further knowledge about, but that, is another conversation.

This is a conversation,

don't you know?

Regardless, these people, who have grown & loved, loved & lost repeatedly, who have found themselves terrified (perhaps momentarily, perhaps perpetually) by the realization that their once strong, invincible bodies are wasting & have had to face the fact that their time alive & healthy is limited, & too, their independence.

This topic is close to my heart, i'm sure like many others because a lot of us had the pleasure of being raised part-time by grandparents. The ever-conceding, all encompassing soft & gooey love of grandparents. There is no other dynamic in the world like that.

I'd nearly go as far as to say that grandparents, feel for their childrens' children at a caliber that parents have not yet developed the capacity for.

Just imagine how much you COULD love the children created by YOUR children.

Beauty in its entirety.

Let's imagine this is you.

So, older you get as time goes on, children settle, move away. Friends do the same. As the years pass, losing friends to the cruel reality of life becomes the norm, till a point where social interactions naturally dis

sipate. Visits to the house become less, matching up almost synonymously with your increasing frailty.

Your partner, when he was around, was your whole life. Because when YOU were brought up, marriage WAS sacred, & whether you hated him when you went to bed, you loved him till the day you watched his brothers & your son lower his casket below the grass line. But adapt you did, as you have umpteen times before & here you are, with your titanium resolve.

You've had a few mishaps, they aren't like you, silly lapses of co ordination. They've landed you in hospital, where you lie frustrated at yourself for managing to hurt yourself doing simple tasks you've always done.

You should only be there a night, but you need to kept under supervision & your only child in this country is 400 miles away & just can't step away from her life to tend to you. You wouldn't expect her to.

Your pension is enough to cover the utilities, some old friends that live close by provide you with eggs when the can & in reality, it's not as bad as war time rations, but by no means, are you in the green.

and now medical bills. When Jim was around he handled it, his keen eye for stocks & stronghold on the local community meant you were always looked after, now, things aren't so simple.

fast forward six months,

You've had a concussion, your daughter was advised by telephone that some family decisions needed to be made, so she comes to visit. It's not the delightful reunion you had run through over & over again in yo

ur mind so expectantly.

You're confused at what she tells you, you can't seem to straighten the facts about her place in your past. You're frustrated, angry, confused.

She asks you where your suitcases are.

She continues, someone you're not sure you trust, is packing  up your life for you.

You won't be back here. That you know.

With Jim or without.