To many for whom the level of boredom they are now experiencing is new,
It might come as a surprise to know there are thousands and thousands of people for whom this is practically no different to their daily lives pre lockdown.
The housebound old of very limited means , a phone yes, but for emergencies only ,not computer savvy and no computer or iPad anyway.
Just the T.V and perhaps radio.
Not many visitors if any .
Family all gone or living a good distance away.
Not wealthy and many on pension credit ,but having to budget with heating and lighting etc.
This is their lot.
Not highly educated having had to leave school at fourteen to work to add to the family’s meagre budget.
They have not had their intelligence tapped into by further education, so not great readers of what might be termed “ Good books”.
I am old and many of the criteria I have just mentioned pertain to me ,but thank goodness not all,.
What we are experiencing is every day,day in day out for years ,for a big proportion of our old ,partially or wholly housebound people.
This is not a reproach ,just an explanation , as many have no idea of the daily lives of our old people.
Sad to say, so high is the level of fraud , scams and heartless dishonesty
that old people are either suspicious or vulnerable.
Not good is it?
So yes I am bored too, but I can use my phone as much as I want, have my iPad, live in an end house with people passing my back garden ,they chat at a couple of metres away over the fence, there are young people living in the other side of the lane who were children at the schools where I worked.
I have a nice moderate walk round the cemetery and will chat to anyone .
I am lucky.
I hope after “ all this” that many more old lonely ,housebound people will be befriended ,perhaps I ought to get in touch with the right people to start a “ Memory group ,” as old customs are being forgotten and simple tools of everyday life only fifty years ago are obsolete and their uses not known .
Such groups exist but as far as I know not locally.
People love to reminisce, we need their knowledge .
“ This “ is tragically hardly any different to daily life for many many people.
It has got to change ,and if it improves because of increased awareness through lockdowns ,well some good will have come ,from Covid 19 , and for our old people not before time.
I will add, I am not talking about those who can afford to live in McCarney Stone complexes, go,on Saga holidays , still have a car, good private health care .etc. It is the other end if the spectrum I speak about .
I do not begrudge people what they have worked for and earned , through good chance and / or diligence ,they deserve what they have .
But the odds are not even ,that is life , but they could be a but more equal.
Anyone of working class parents will have known hard, work some deprivation and the inability often to take up the openings that would have improved their
education and widened their options.
They needed to add to the family budget ,went to night school if possible ,after a long day’s work .
The price they now pay for having to go to work instead of furthering their education and improving their chances is ,in many cases poverty and
loneliness.
Viktoria.
