When you’re young, you never think about getting old. The years go by, and one day, you realise you are way past middle age, getting slower and less mentally agile, and that the modern world has no time or respect for you. You feel unseen and unheard, confused and denigrated.
Take Ruby, a retired midwife. I met her in April 2021, during lockdown. We briefly became Covid pals, then lost touch. Then earlier this year, there she was, in the car park, in tears. Parking meters were no longer straightforward; visitors had to get an app. My husband Colin tried to help her, but got nowhere.
Her distress grew. Before she left she said: “No parks now for us. What else will they take away? We worked all those years, paid taxes. And this is our reward?”
