\u2026.was the heading of an article in The Guardian the other day by Tim de Lisle. Various old people with children of pensionable age were interviewed. Mary Long is 93 and her son Simon is 65. Asked if the parent-child relationship changes over the years she replied: \u2018Do you know, I\u2019ve never really thought. I don\u2019t think it does.\u2019 Did she still see the small boy in her son? \u2018Awfully difficult to forget! But it\u2019s lovely that I\u2019m not responsible for him any more and don\u2019t have to get up in the night\u2019. How old is old? Mary says firmly \u2018Old means ten years older than you are now\u2019 Does she feel old? \u2018Not really. My own grandparents always wore black, and I haven\u2019t even got a black dress\u2019.<\/p>\n
Betty Stafford (92) lives alone in central London. Her daughter lives in Henley and her son Julian who is 70, in Paris, from where he commutes twice a week to see his mother for dinner. He feels he is catching up on his mother: \u2018I don\u2019t really feel like a younger generation. There are times when I go round to see her after a wearying flight or something and she looks more in robust health than I feel. Our ages have grown closer together. Our conversations are very much about the people we both know, and who\u2019s died of our generation. Many of her old friends are my friends too. The generations do merge\u2019. Are people living too long? \u2018Oh yes. I am! I want to see my next great grandchild, but I\u2019d like to die before next winter. My brain is active and all that, but I just feel I\u2019m not as strong as I was and I don\u2019t want to be a bore\u2019.<\/p>\n
Rose Hacker is 100 this week, her son Lawrence 73. She worries that the generation below her\u2019s is suffering. \u2018Our parents all obligingly died in their 70\u2019s. But now a lot of people I know have old parents to look after and some old people can be very difficult. So here are people who should be in the prime of their life, and they are terribly stressed. She feels that we need \u2018an education in how to be old.\u2019 And what should it teach? \u2018That you should not be so bloody selfish. You have to learn to accept. As you get older, your faculties gradually go and it\u2019s no use expecting your children to do everything. You\u2019ve got to learn to find a centre within yourself. I can sit here forever with my memories and my music.\u2019<\/p>\n
Bryan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2026.was the heading of an article in The Guardian the other day by Tim de Lisle. Various old people with children of pensionable age were interviewed. Mary Long is 93 and her son Simon is 65. Asked if the parent-child relationship changes over the years she replied: \u2018Do you know, I\u2019ve never really thought. I don\u2019t think it does.\u2019 Did she still see the small boy in her son? \u2018Awfully difficult to forget! But it\u2019s lovely that I\u2019m not responsible for him any more and don\u2019t have to get up in the night\u2019. How old is old? Mary says firmly <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"yoast_head":"\n