I’ve always thought that one of the wonderful trickle down effect of the Women’s Liberation Movement is how much more interesting supported living/care homes will become.
As a trail blazer, sadly, the vast majority of GG’s female peers will not have had anywhere near the varied and interesting life experience that GG carved out for herself and that could well make for a lonely day to day life.
By the time the older Gen Xers are in their 80s, we will see some of GG’s legacy, and (fingers crossed) older women will find a satisfactory comradery in living alongside feminist sisters & female friends.
I often think that the worse version of old age is a sharp mind and a frail body (I realise the other way around is often much harder on the family though).
My adopted dad (a trail blazing NHS psychiatrist who specialised in working with addicts and the homeless) had a car crash 18 months ago and at almost 80, decided to refuse further care rather than live in a paralysed body.
He was literally stuck staring at the ceiling but had memorised every staff member’s name and was very active in all the decision making. Hard for us too as limited visiting due to Covid but I am left with immense respect for both his intellect and his pragmatism.
Speaking of elderly trail blazers making pragmatic decisions, this reminds me of a Netflix documentary series from a couple of years back, an elderly American lesbian couple who had been living together for 60-70 years as ‘friends’ officially ‘coming out’ partly due to needing more support due to increasing frailty and thus having to give up some of their privacy, privacy they had carefully cultivated due to the political, cultural and legal climate in the first half of their decades-long relationship.
Supported by a niece they eventually move into a gay friendly care home and get married shortly before one of them passes away. Made me bawl my eyes out.
I don’t know anything much about elder care nowadays (it’s 20 years since my grandma died and my bio and adopted parents have all avoided it so far) but it seems to me it’s going to be in need of a bit of a culture change in order to better care for people who have lived through an enormously changing cultural landscape? Some of that change will probably happen naturally, but will it keep up?
Women are the majority of care home residents and average women’s lives are very different to even my mum’s generation, let alone grannies.
I love a bit of bingo and fish and chips on a Friday, but it’s not enough for a population who were encouraged to go to university and work career type jobs, is it?
Especially not for someone with the towering intellect of Germaine Greer.
I expect tech has a big role to play in terms of communications and as much physical independence as possible (Alexa type virtual assistants) but the pandemic has demonstrated how vital face to face human connection is.
I can see how wealthy elderly people used to take up permanent residence in posh hotels - all the convenience of room service, concierge and cleaning staff but also an ever revolving set of fellow guests (of all ages) in the lounge, restaurant and bar!