I’m not quite in my dotage yet, but I do occasionally consider what options I will have when I stop working. My pension is not going to provide anything like the income I have now. Our mortgage should be paid off by the time I reach 70. I have been careless about my diet, so I can expect the predictable anguish of arthritis, heart problems and possibly diabetes.
With all that in mind, would I want to go and live with a lot of other old crones in a retirement village where everything is at hand? Probably, like so many of my elderly family members and friends, I will fight tooth and nail to stay in my own home.
My mother had considered moving into a complex near her home if her health became too difficult to manage alone. Now she has battled heart problems, knee replacement and hip replacement surgery and endures arthritic pain, but still lives in her own very comfortable flat on the first floor and is a very competent driver.
I suppose we all approach our senior years and alter our perspective the closer we come to them. It would be great to think that money and health will not divide the elderly into those who are mostly independent and well cared for, and those who rely on whatever the state provides, which fills many with dread.
odespinner 