Just a thought – Talk to the elderly, please!

13^th of March 2018

Just a thought

 Since I am 72 years old I am experiencing a lot of problems with the banks here in my little land.

To be able to build the house I want to build I need a loan. My apartment does not pay for the house, not quite.

I have been to several banks here in my land and everywhere the reply is: Sorry but you are too old.

I cannot get a loan, but I could be a warrantee on a mortgage for a younger person.

Does this make sense?

Not to me.

When you are my age and want to get up from the living room sofa you walk into hurdles that sometimes look like a stone wall.

I just wonder why this is.

Why is it that people who are certain age become secondary citizens?

Nowadays, the year 2018 people live longer. They are healthier and they are vibrant.

This is not the year 1900 it is 2018.

We see ads from different companies that show healthy men with YOUNGER women. All this is to show how senior years can be wonderful!

There is something not right here.

Of course the rich ones can do whatever they want to do but those who are more or less just average or normal are like in chains. Just because of the age.

This makes me furious.

I am vibrant, I am active, I am alive. I am not rich of money but I am wealthy of optimism and love for the live.

What can be done?

I think there has to be more discussion about this. I also think that those who write about the senior citizens should sometimes talk to normal people and forget for a minute about the wealthy ones. There is a gap, a huge gap, and those who are writing about this age can find people in the lower level that would be willing to share their stories.

Is it possible that we don´t want to hear from everyone?

Is it true that it’s just the beautiful and wealthy that deserves our attention?

I find beauty in all the people I see. Just look at the face of the beautiful old woman or a man with all their wrinkles and the soft voice. A story of their lives is written in every wrinkle. A story that I would like to hear is inside them.

What happened to the trend to sit beside the wise ones and listen to them?

Have we all moved into our smart phones?

Maybe it’s time to wake up and find the elderly who have so much to share.

I will look for them and listen to them.

Recently I was at the clinic and there was an elderly Portuguese lady ahead of me. We talked a bit and she had this bright wonderful smile. I complained about the cold and the wind. She put her hand on my hand to feel if I was cold, which I was.

Then she needed to sign the papers for the tests she was going to have. It broke my heart to see her putting her finger into the ink and sign with her finger.

It always breaks my heart when I witness this. I saw this often in China and I see it frequently here in Portugal. The wonderful older people who did not go to school and did not learn to read and write but have this dream which will not be fulfilled in this live.

I come from Iceland where we all learned to read. I am one of the lucky ones but I could easily be like the wonderful lady in the clinic.

I don´t take my fortune for granted.

I am grateful for it.

Hulda Björnsdóttir