How do you know when you’re old? Is it when unasked for information about funeral plans and life insurance are posted through your door? Or when you realise you don’t know what Snapchat is or you have to scroll further down the tick boxes in the age section? Some people say old is 20 years on top of whatever age you currently are which just goes to show to a 15 year old being 35 is ancient and to an 80 year old a 60 year old is young.
We are living longer, want to live longer, and it is predicted that more people than ever will receive a telegram from the Queen – who will send her a telegram? Being old is not something people want to admit to, they hide their age, we are frightened of being old: and yet the milennials of today are the perennials of tomorrow.
On Thursday 3 October Leeds will be the first city in the UK to launch an Age Proud campaign to raise awareness of ageism and change negative attitudes about ageing and older people at Leeds City Museum.
One of the speakers, Joyce Williams, a Yorkshire-born retired physiotherapist, who took up blogging one year ago speaks out about why she decided to write about being old and what it means to be the oldest blogger in town at the age of 80. Continue reading
Stories include that of Gloria Hanley who left the Caribbean for England in the late 1960s. Originally from St Kitts, Gloria arrived in the UK in 1968 where she trained as a nurse before coming to Leeds in the early 1980s to pursue a career as a midwife.
