So how old do you think I am? (Don’t answer that!)

When I was 62 I was in a cafe with my baby twin grandchildren and a woman asked me if I’d had an easy birth with them. I have to admit I felt flattered. Unfortunately now I look terrible and wrinkled since cancer surgery for an aggressive tumour on my face!

Tillybelle, Joan Hickson is my favourite Miss Marple too. Great minds etc etc. ?

Who knows what any age should look like?
Someone once said, when told they didn't look 60, "Yes I do because this is what 60 looks like on me."

Tilly you are not having much luck with people from church lately.

I was waiting to cross the road on a dark Winter afternoon in the rain. The traffic was relentless. Along came our Religious Leader (female), with umbrella, in a hurry. Seeing me she said "Oh I can stop the cars to get across by taking you over (I'm also disabled). I'll be your carer." Whereupon she grabbed my arm and pulled me into the wet road forcing a car to stop suddenly and tugged me almost all the way across at a speed I found difficult, frightening and painful, letting go before she reached the other side to run off to her car way ahead of me.
I realised what it is like to be used.
I stopped going to that Church.

Tilly at least you know you can never ever look worse, in life or death.

Aaagh, Passport photos! Oh don't remind me Riverwalk ! I have my bus pass one done after going through a heavy rainstorm while having a migraine. When I took it to the Council office for my bus/transport pass, I said it looked as if I were dead! The lady was so embarrassed, but it really does. I've seen several dead bodies.

Baggs I'm sure you are right. I think I remember learning on my Psychology degree that as people age they do not sleep as long, at least at night!

newgran2019. Yes, I meant to say that when I said I have many friends who dislike driving. It isn't age-related.

Many comments remind me of when I bought a nasal spray, it was before going on holiday in fact and I was over 60. The lovely mature lady assistant said "do not use by under 18s" in a manner as if she meant me! I laughed and said thank you! Then she spoiled it and said, no, she meant not to give it to under 18 year olds......so I promised not to give it to any of my grandchildren.

I agree newgran

No real ideas that would help PECS but hope you feel better soon, having a bad back can really get you down

I am one of the nervous drivers and only 55. Age has nothing to do with it, as Monica says.

I think that some people, once they reach a particular age, can feel more sensitive to comments that imply their (actual or presumed) age may be a 'limiting' factor in activities despite evidence showing that is not the case.

Currently I am feeling "old".. for the first time in my life I am suffering from a bad back that is limiting what I normally do. Sitting around more often than usual gives me time to focus on other , probably minor, irritations /aches /pains. I feel like an old , moaning Minnie and have probably worried myself into feeling far worse than I need to. So I feel worse...and so the downward spiral goes... need to jump start myself out of this situation.. anyone got any ideas?

They're making being old/aged something that matters whiel all the while saying it doesn't and that age is just a number.

Doesn't make sense.

Except as twisted ageism.

I think anyone who doesn"t want to be thought the age they are is being ageist.

Should have said "who apparently rhinks..."

greengran, yet another who thinks looking her actual age is something worth thinking about let alone talking about.

I still don't get it.

I thought it was generally understood that people need less sleep as they age anyway. Or is that just an old wives' tale?

Baggs I also think that many people who are 74 are elderly. However, I don't think of myself, as elderly, at all. I'm 79. How's that for double standards?

I haven't been on the receiving end of patronising remarks yet, either, though I'm sure that I'm beginning to 'look my age.' I think that mixing with a lot of younger people keeps me young 'inside my head'.

In bed by ten at the very latest

What has the time one goes to bed, which probably depends at least partly on how early one got up, among other things, got to do with age? I'm usually in bed before ten, sometimes before nine. I get up just after five in the morning though. You'll have heard of larks and owls, I presume? I'm a lark. What are you, shw?

When you work in a M&S shop you see a certain lot of ladies of a certain age. I suppose she put you in that range.

I called in Boots the other day & asked if I needed an appointment for the flu jab. She said I was in luck as they were only giving it to the under 65s at present. I said I was unlucky as I'm 67. She was surprised & I was delighted. In the end I decided to wait in a very long queue at my GP's.

A recent thread talked about being labelled a "vulnerable" adult when we are over 60. A man from a local Church had set up his own charity and had offered his Carpenter to put up my shelves (I had the shelves but am disabled and holding them in place is now difficult) and asked for my daughter's phone number so he could "ask her permission to come into your house and do things". As I have always organised all trades people I needed, including having a builder recently, and having been widowed at 41, so very used to running the house alone, this seemed very silly to me. I said there was no need to do it, I own my house, I have mental capacity and anyway, since being over 60, I had hired many service people to do jobs in my house such as a gardener, a washing machine repair man, British Gas (who know I am disabled), and the electricity company who had altered the meter to put me on a new tariff, and never have had to get permission from my daughter to do something in my own home! I was actually already upset with him because he had been very intrusive about my life. His response? In that case we cannot help you! I was only too glad. I'd rather pay a normal Carpenter!

You're right, Tilly. The stick in question belonged to a lady younger than me who had had a stroke.
I was being frivolous - sorry. I'm grateful for the limited mobility that I have at my age, and don't want to lose it.

Fennel
Regarding your being "a bit offended" about being mistaken for the owner of a walking stick:

Just be glad you don't need one. Some of us would love to manage without ours. Including the children who need walking aids.

Gonegirl There is 'care' and there is being made to feel 'past it'. If beauty is in the eye of the beholder why not age? Not always correct but as long as it's in my favour can make my day.
I remember my fathers mother when she was the age at what is now my present age. I frequently wear jeans and a M&S leather jacket and in winter my favourite coat is a waxed quilted belted Barbour. I like to shop and have the occasional coffee and a meal out with friends. Gran would have been living with my aunt and sitting in her favourite chair in her black dress and white apron maybe shelling peas ,or peeling apples for my aunt to make a pie.In bed by ten at the very latest. I wonder what she would have made of today over seventies.