Back In The Good Old Days

  Remember when we were all wanting to live in a commune? We were young and idealistic. The idea that we could all share a space and the chores, look out for each other, never have to be alone and listen to the Grateful Dead all day had its appeal. Turn the clock ahead 45 years and look at our situations now. At least back then we were young and healthy.

  I’m still in contact with many of my friends from 1972 and were a sad bunch. E cared for her paralyzed mother and disabled sister until their deaths last year. Now she is a 60+ divorced woman who devoted all those years in an unpaid position because she was a good daughter. She lives alone in a rented house and inherited nothing from her mother. Social Security doesn’t allow for an extravagant lifestyle.

  D lives alone in a small house with her dog. She raised three sons who are now successful men. One son is a pharmacist, one is an orthopedic surgeon and the other I’m not sure. She did a good job as a mom but the sons have their own lives and young families. D recently had hip a replacement.

 A lives alone in the house she grew up in. She had to buy out her siblings share when their mother passed away. My son fixed her roof after a hurricane left the rain pouring in but she still has no heat or air conditioning. The backyard pool is now a fishpond. A has type 1 diabetes and although she owned a landscape business that covered a three state area, she never recovered from broken ribs several years ago.

  P lives in Seattle now rather than on the lovely island he once did. He was a musical whiz and great with woodworking tools or a welding machine. At 70+ the last I saw he was saying how he wanted a companion to share his remaining years with.

  Are you seeing a pattern here? It looks as if the world is overflowing with aging baby-boomers who are alone and lonely. We may have grey hair now and not stringing love beads but the only thing old about us is our bodies. Our minds are still stuck in the ‘60’s. THIS is the time we should be considering “getting a place together”. To hell with a help-I’ve-fallen-and-I-can’t-get-up doodad hanging around our necks. We could have each other.