No friends

It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

I find thinking how blessed I have been with friends and loved ones no longer with me, such friendship , such love, is comforting.

It's not always easy to make friends even when you join clubs I guess you have to keep trying.
We don't always hit it off with everyone that's life and of course it's more difficult if you are shy.
I have a husband and although we do have some interests which we share we also have things we like to do separately.
I have met several people through my interests but I am outgoing and chat with everyone.
Best of luck

The friends and relatives the same age as us or older all vanish one by one, and even those younger than us can be cruelly taken. We have to keep making new friends all the time. That isn't easy when you have difficulty getting out and about.

It just has to be accepted , I never, ever thought I would end up in isolation

To all who have posted on this thread that "I am in XXXX. If anyone else is near there . . ." do go to www.gransnet.com/forums/meet_ups_where_are_you and post the same thing on there, heading it up with the title "Meet-up in or near XXXX" or something similar. Then people in or near XXXX will see it and know that is what you would like.

That is a positive invitation, and is more likely to get a result than the more general heading of this post "No friends"

It was good to meet you too artyfarty . I think it takes a bit of courage to go along to a meet-up when you don't know anybody else there but once you get chatting you seem to find that you have experiences in common with others round the table. Looking forward to our next meet-up in January.

I went to a meeting of grans about three weeks ago in York (see thread, meet-ups/where are you?) There were six of us altogether of varying ages and interests and I had a lovely afternoon. We were all total strangers to begin with but we had lots to chat about and definitely no embarrassing silences! Many thanks to oldgoat who arranged it. We hope to do it again in the New Year and anyone who can make it will be more than welcome!

It's not easy is it. I think that I often go to things and then feel I should rush off home and get on with something. Whereas I should stay and chat to people and even suggest we go off and have coffee or lunch. I always think I should have lunch at home and save the money but it's better to be out as much as possible and spend the time chatting to someone.
Also must get in to the habit of inviting people round for supper or nibbles. Very easy to lose confidence.

I have no friends. My very dear friend of twenty years died in October. We had not seen each other for about ten years but spoke on the phone every night sometimes for ten minutes sometimes forty five minutes. I can chat to anyone but cannot make friends. I cannot go out much as my husband has dementia. Social services pay for a carer to sit with him for two hours on a Tuesday and two hours on a wednesday. I attend Mind in Midherts on those days. A motivation group and a cafe support group which are great but cannot seem to make friends there. Don't have much contact with children because of their dad's condition and my anxiety etc. I live in St Albans in Hertfordshire.

Perth

Civil Service, NHS and other large organisations have Retirement fellowships. If you ever worked for them, look on line for your local branch. They are always ready to welcome new members and they usually have regular meetings and trips.

There is also the WI and U3A. Some local community centres hold coffee mornings and lunch clubs. Local churches often have similar schemes.

lonely at 72.Any one live in or around Preston ,who want to chat ,

If there's anyone living around the Gloucester/Cheltenham area I would be interested in meeting up for a coffee and a chat.

If any of you ladies are in Manchester or Trafford area I would love to meet up. Please get in touch. All my friends are still married.

Any one here from cardiff

I live in cardiff have 2 sisters who don't bother with me and no friends. I feel very lonely and it's making me depressed.

I also don't have any friends,the odd acquaintance via texts or fb. I left all my friends behind when I moved from middx to east coast with my children several years ago ( lone/single parent) My oldest ones grew up and moved out and are now mostly busy with their own family lives (don't see GC as much as I'd like) or clubbing life lol and I guess I'm feeling that loss. Now its just me and my youngest two (10,13) although I'm busy with what that still entails and I'm not 'alone' I do miss female company, camaraderie and it would be nice to have friends to chat with, confide in and meet up with regularly. I've gone through so much in the last decade on my own and I'm fed up with talking everything through in my head because I have no friends,no idea how to change things though?
I've accepted,in my early 50's I will remain single but would like to think I could still have at least one female friendship ?

Arrr, thanks Carol.

I'm in Essex too, I attended one lovely GN get together at Bluewater but had to miss the 2nd.

I'm meeting one lady I met at that get together tomorrow in Rayleigh but I'm sure we'd be happy to meet up with anyone else.

Do pm me if you're nearby , we could arrange something for a couple of weeks time - after all you can never have too much coffee and cake ;-)

Well done Kateykrunch! She may turn out to be your new bestie ?

I went to a new group on Monday, a clique of 4 ignored me, and 2 ladies sat on the end seats of a row of four ignored me. If that had been the other way round, I would have said, oh, come and sit here, but, I decided to persevere (I have been known to sneak away as I feel really awkward in this sort of situation) and I sat on my own at another set of four seats. Another lady came in, saw the spare seats near me, sat there, but looked in the opposite direction, so I started to talk to her, she was really glad I had and said she was glad to have made a friend, we enjoyed the class together, no one else spoke to anyone other than who they had come with, we swopped email addresses and are both looking forward to the next class. Success!

Oh and I have another lady I see occasionally who I used to work with before she retired but she's ten years older than me and much less physically fit so we don't share the same interests (apart from grandchildren) or abilities....

I'm another one who lacks a close friend locally. Think it stems from being an only child and Mum dying when I was 7 shattered my confidence. We moved around a lot after Dad remarried, as soon as I made school friends we moved again, so I started work very shy & with no friends at all. I am close to my SiL and another lady I go on holiday with but they both have huge circles of friends so don't see them as often as I'd like to. I also have a group of 'friends' locally but they spend time together without asking me so feel very much an outsider and sometimes feel that they only ask me along to make them look good. (They're all prettier, thinner, richer etc. etc.) I just long for that one close friend that will pop in for coffee at the drop of a hat and who'll share life's up and downs. Thought I'd found one when my kids were little but turned out she was fickle and dropped me for a succession of others! I am sociable, love going out when I get the chance (OH never is bothered, would rather watch TV) music, dancing, cinema, meals etc. so it's not that I'm a misery guts ? !

Things like Rockchoir , U3a and craft groups are really dependant on the people in the group I joined a craft group and everyone had their own friend group already established, it became obvious people had joined together There were lots of in jokes and I felt such an outsider I stayed for a good 6 months but was never included further than small talk. As regards rock choir, again I think it's not a blanket wonderful, my daughter went for quite a few years but never found a close friend, it is expensive, if you're poorly and miss a week or two you still have to pay Their choir master changed and it became like school with lots of nitty rules brought in , she goes to a smaller independant choir now that you pay on the night but although much younger than me she hasn't made close close friends and wants to badly
I have one best friend but she has other close friends so I m not sure if she would see me as her best friend I have a big circle of lunch friends but only one out of that amount that I feel at home with and she's remarried so does everything with her husband
I too am an only child I can talk to everyone and everything but I m still lonely