CHARLES GRAHAM: Lone elderly get worst of lockdown

I know quite a few people who are having to self-isolate on their own as the pandemic restrictions drag on, and I try to keep in touch with each as regularly as possible.
Screen time is a whole lot better than nothing, but lone self-isolating pensioners are having it particularly toughScreen time is a whole lot better than nothing, but lone self-isolating pensioners are having it particularly tough
Screen time is a whole lot better than nothing, but lone self-isolating pensioners are having it particularly tough

They are reacting to these constraints in different ways, some philosophical; some revelling in the chance to get on with long overdue jobs around the house while getting most of a wage for not going to work; and some are going up the wall.

It’s fair to say that my mum falls into that last category.

She lives 50 miles away from us so we can’t use our hour’s exercise to walk round and wave and talk through the window, nor do the shopping for her and leave it at the door.

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Then again, feisty soul that she is, she makes sure she gets her daily walk in and also insists on continuing with her own shopping - driving to her local supermarket for its “silver service” period when only pensioners can come in, and she makes sure the car gets a decent run so the battery doesn’t go flat. Her attention to sanitising and social distancing is exemplary. She also usually receives several phone calls a day from wellwishers and she has some very good neighbours.

But it’s not the same. She misses her daily trips to the gym, the badminton, church choir rehearsals and services and seeing her friends and relatives.

She feels aggrieved for her generation, which was brought up to obey and respect, saying that talk of keeping pensioners incarcerated longer than the rest of us for their own good is deeply unfair as they aren’t the ones flouting the restrictions by and large and have the least time left to enjoy life.

She said to me the other day: “I’m 83 next month. I feel pretty well at the moment for my age. But at this age you don’t know what’s round the corner. When you hear doctors on the telly saying that these distancing and lockdown measures may have to be kept in place for months if not years - especially the elderly, you begin to wonder ‘is this what it’s going to be for the rest of my life?’

There’s not really much of an answer I can give to that.