What older people appreciate

I know 'older' is relative.  It's helpful to distinguish between the young-old in their seventies and the old-old in their eighties though we may know plenty of exceptions of young eighties and beyond. But the truth is that even the young-olds know the sadness of friends and relatives dying, accompanied by our own fading strength and energy.  Compounded, sadly, by the isolation of Covid 19.

Firmly embedded in the young-olds ourselves, we have made friends in our own age group and just recently a couple came for a socially distanced coffee time in the garden.  It struck me forcibly just how much they lit up when conversation allowed them to share more of their own story.  In retirement as they have moved to a new place few know about their past achievements and fewer want to hear about them.  But, open up space and time to share and they bubbled with enthusiasm for the great times in former years.  It was lovely to see and hear.

That's what older people appreciate.  And I chuckle because I realize that I have been using my blog to do exactly this....tell out something of my story.  Actually, I have just completed 44,000 words of 'My Weird Life' ending with the birth of our two boys.  Truthfully I have appreciated being able to get some of the story written down though for a (very) limited audience.  When we tell our stories we can veer from exaggerating the positives to emphasizing the negatives.  I know my tendency is towards the former which makes it less gossipy and interesting!  Anyway, here's one older person who has appreciated being listened to.