American statesman Bernard Baruch once memorably observed, “Old age is always 15 years older than I am!” His sunny optimism does sustain us oldies for some time before we begin to realise that the ageing process inevitably overtakes (and incapacitates) all sooner or later. We are then promptly relegated to the ranks of the elderly-- a state of ‘vegetation’ of sorts where people choose to have little or no truck with us and sometimes even isolate us, mistakenly believing us to be nearing senility. Loneliness and lack of companionship then usually dog us.
True, we old and retired folks once did nurse (or rather were ‘brainwashed’ with) the fond ‘myth’ that old age is a time of well-earned relaxation when one can 'put one’s feet up', take things easy and let the world go by. However, we soon learnt, to our dismay, that the harsh reality is far too different.
For one thing, it was hard to come to terms with the fact that one no longer has a regular job and that one is considered redundant and what’s perhaps even more galling is that one’s successor can do former's job equally well, if not better!
Ill health often stalks us like an unrelenting predator. One spends more time tramping the corridors of hospitals than one does on one’s daily walk.