Growing Old Grace-fully was delighted to be invited to talk about our new Guide ‘Welcoming Older People – ideas for and from parishes’ at all three masses on the weekend of the 24th-25th June. Thank you for making Rachel, our worker, so welcome. Thank you to Fr Kieron for giving Rachel his slot and thank you to the Parish Pastoral Council for inviting us.
Rachel talked about the Guide, which had been on display at both St Walburga’s and St Aidan’s the week before. Rachel talked about the impetus behind the Guide, the need to celebrate the gift of years that we have now, pointing out that we have more people living into old age than ever before. In 1917, the average life expectancy in Britain was 50 for a girl, and 45 for boys. There were less than 200 people aged 100, now there are over 15,000. We are all living longer. Isn’t that a great gift? Isn’t that something to celebrate?
Of course, as with any big changes, there are challenges to overcome and we need to work together to do that, but as followers of Christ we need to cherish the blessings as well. We need to bring light to the darkness – the darkness in the all the news stories moaning about how we cannot afford to support and care for “all these old people” but really telling us that older people are a problem, a burden. Has anyone ever seen a headline that talks about the value of older people? Rachel pointed out that grandparents in the UK provide an estimated £7.3 billion pounds of free childcare every year (GrandparentsPlus and Age UK Report, 2016).
Rachel concluded by saying that some of the ideas in the Guide are suggesting small changes to what is already happening, but that small changes can make a real difference. Mother Theresa said, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” 