WHO THINKS OF THE ELDERLY THESE DAYS ?

WHY IS THE WORLD SO UNFRIENDLY FOR OLD PEOPLE ?
I love it when I see old people getting out and about having fun and doing stuff . This week a friend of my Italian girlfriends and I hosted the visit of an 85 year old English gentleman by the name of Mr Prichard. His interest is in visiting great gardens , so we visited a few over three days in the North of Italy . We all had a great time together and its a wonderful thing to be with elderly people who have such wisdom and fun in them still , that they can see life through such different eyes as our own , and have even enough grace to pardon those who have a lack of appreciation of the elderly as if they themselves will never be old.
I had my old father with me till he died at the age of 85 and never considered living without him. He was such fun and never a burden . I could also see how difficult it would be for him to manage alone.
They cannot walk well , so how do they get to the shops to buy food? These days they have a service where everything can be delivered , how wonderful …..depending where you live of course…. They cannot drive anymore , so independence is completely cut off . In my village where I used to live in Australia there was the granny bus twice a week for the oldies to get together and tot off to town for a bit of shopping. I see poor old people struggling to get on and off the bus , young people not thinking to stand up for them even to offer them a seat.
The government also does not cater well enough for this group of a growing part of the population. I mean whats with all the small print everywhere? Small print should be banned on everything. Do you think an older person can read the small print on the train ticket that says you cannot use a ticket if it has been validated more than 6 hours before ? How easy do you imagine it to be for an elderly person to haul his suitcase up a flight of stairs to a train platform ? How hard to get on the train with the steps up so high ? What about cyclists in most european cities these days , scaring the wits out of old people as they whizz past so close not imagining the effect it could have on someone with a dicky heart? What about mobile phones , can they tell the difference between a 6 and an 8 on an I phone? I know I can't anymore.
Why don't people think about us , when we get older in just the small things ? Its so hard for the elderly to go out .
It seems most services these days are aimed for young consumers , no one thinks about the elderly . saskia