Page 54 - Bulletin, Vol.78 No.2, June 2019
P. 54
EIGHTY AND ATTITUDES
By Joy Pattinson
We age, but our attitudes remain the same. It’s problematic for us to find doctors are
often 40 years younger than ourselves. They are enjoying their careers; we are viewed
as always having been 80!
When we used to go to doctors they were usually about 30 years older than us; how it
should be, because if we were consulting somebody about our health, we would
normally expect him to have finished his studies, be fully competent, know far more than
us, and be older.
At 80, we can’t expect to see medics older than ourselves!
If there’s anything more annoying it’s this insistence we walk, run, exercise, practice
yoga, stuff ourselves with fruits and vegetables, keep off red meat and take care over
the wine…. No mention of our lifetimes doing such things or recognition that at such a
great age these habits have done us proud.
It appears we should not enjoy our well-earned sedentary lifestyle. We should instead
follow what younger people tell us what to do, eat and drink.
There is a wide misconception that those of us in our 80’s were always old. Nobody
ponders what we were achieving whilst they were still growing up.
In our days the elderly were those we sought when we wanted to know or learn
something. We felt they must know more, due to their seniority.
The transition from being a knowledgeable person to one who barely gets the time of
day, is invisible in crowded shops and streets, is mind-boggling. It is as if we never
were!
How did we suddenly become so unimportant? What happened that changed us from
knowledgeable individuals into nonentities and nuisances?
Cosmetics are recommended for skins ‘up to 70’! Eyes have to be tested from 71. No
company will insure anybody over 75! Annoying phone calls are plentiful: ‘Are you
under 65’?
It’s abundantly clear that anybody who hits 80 is considered gone!
We have always been old…
52 AAFI-AFICS BULLETIN, Vol. 78 No. 2, 2019-06
