Old, alone, neglected, set aside and frightened.
Medical science has made tremendous advances in curing many diseases. People are living much longer than at the turn of the century. This increased life span has generated a situation that is growing like a snowball rolling downhill.
As the situation grows, we find many elderly people who will say “I’m old, alone, neglected, set aside and frightened. No one hears me crying! When you look at the situation, questions come to mind that we must address in order to begin to seek remedies to help the elderly. First of all, how old is old? Is it more than chronological age? There are many people who have not yet reached the “golden years” so to speak, yet their minds dwell on the fact that they are getting old. On the other hand, we have those well up in years and still living productive lives. There is no doubt that if you are blessed with long life, old age is inevitable. The difference is in how you handle the aging process. It can be accepted as another stage of life that you embrace and move on, making adjustments as needed and live it to the fullest. Or, it can be treated as an incurable disease and you just wait to die, and as you wait you weep.
One of the by-products of growing old is that often you find yourself alone. Being alone in itself is not the problem. It’s being alone when you don’t want to be and there is no one.
