My parents married during the war. Both my grandmothers were present on that bleak winter’s day in Melbourne, and I have a photograph of them looking old. The weather and the fashions of the time did not help, but they looked much older than 48 and 58. They had been born in the decade from 1885-95, however, and women born then could expect to live to be 51, men to be only 47.
Both grandmothers and my grandfather lived longer than average, attitudes towards ageing have changed, often not for the better, and most white Australians these days expect to see 80.
Writer Thomas Keneally, himself 84, recently expressed his approval of the Shakespearian metaphor: all the world’s a stage. But he could not cope, he said, with the popular and prevailing idea that all the world’s a market, a notion that connects retirement with a lack of productivity, and one that has taken on particular significance during this period of coronavirus. Boris Johnson’s adviser, Dominic Cummings, is alleged to have said that the British government’s strategy was herd immunity and protection of the economy: ‘If that means some pensioners die, too bad.’
This statement was made at the end of February, and was speedily denied, but mortality statistics in Britain’s nursing homes since support the idea of the neglect and stereotyping of older people, and age has long been presented as a societal burden for western countries. Captain Tom Moore might be interested in this point of view: he is the Englishman who started a sponsored walk in his garden as a fund-raising project in the month before his 100th birthday, an effort that culminated in the raising of 32 million pounds for Britain’s NHS.
The thoughts of Cummings and others reached Greece during the time of the Health Ministry’s regular reports to the nation, and were not well-received. Professor Tsiodras, the Ministry’s chief spokesman, an expert on infectious diseases, and a religious, deeply humane man, became quite emotional during one telecast. He pointed out that our identity depends on our parents and our grandparents.
As such, I think it is not only our duty to look after the aged, but a task that brings its own reward in the form of companionship, expressed wisdom, and guidance as to how to manage life’s testing times. I have always had friends decades older than I, and those friendships have been a privilege.
'Grandparents also play a