Alone Tips

I touched base on the positive aspect of being alone but not being alone recently. I last wrote about how being surrounded by such a great community is what I needed and loved about coming to Olney but I think I took the easy road out and left out the negative things about being alone. I believe there are so many of us who are becoming alone with no one in our lives as we head into the golden years and those years just before the golden years.

At the risk of sounding melodramatic or maybe like one of those new men who are in touch with their feelings a little too much, I will attempt to give an accounting of how it is for us loners heading into twilight with no one close in our lives. As the self-appointed ambassador of the alone, I will say we are not looking for pity or sympathy, we are looking for conversations, hugs, friendships and most importantly invitations to life events or just a good, old-fashioned BBQ.

Going to events is always a double- edged sword, it’s fun to be surrounded by people, conversations and fellowship but equally hard coming home to an empty house. Seniors are stacked up in senior homes and in some cases forgotten about, some are lucky to have regular family or friends visits but more than not most are sitting watching TV or looking out the window with only memories to keep them company.

Some things you can do to help someone alone: invite them over or to events. Don’t, I repeat, don’t say, ‘You’re always welcome to come over and then never send an invite.’ Most of us are from a generation where it is considered rude to invite ourselves over without an invitation. Additionally, giving an invite lets us know we are wanted at the event, dinner or BBQ and are not intruding. When you see someone posting all the time about their cats and dogs, this could be because this is all we have in our lives and so they mean the most to us - even more so than people with lots of friends and family.

We want to show off the ones we love the most in our lives: our pets. If you see a senior stop and offer conversations and even a hug, it may be the only one they have for that day or even week. We are alone but not always by choice, we want to be included. We know your life is full of friends and family and is busy but take a minute to think about inviting a senior or that man or woman you randomly talk to who would consider an invite to a special occasion a prized possession more precious than gold.

This is Will B saying, See you at the BBQ?