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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Philippa Perry

I am so lonely and so isolated, I feel I’m living like a zombie

Alone on the benchA man sits alone on a park bench.
‘We all need to discover what it is we love and then go and do it.’ Photograph: Adam Lister/Getty Images

The question I found myself listening to an interview with you on the radio the other day. I enjoyed hearing how you approach life and relate to people; it resonated with me. Sadly, my reason for writing is less positive.

I’m a 70-year-old guy who, for a long time, has been single and living alone. I took early retirement and volunteered full-time for a charity for several years before walking out in disgust in 2019. I’ve never had that many close friends and in the past five years I have been bizarrely abandoned/rejected by just about all the “friends” I thought I had, including school friends, plus my only brother.

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