Have you hugged an older person today?
Make it a point to do so.
We don’t celebrate the older people in the Cayman Islands enough.
So it was good to see many members of our older generation treated to lunch Monday in honour of the International Day of Older Persons.
The older people in our society have done so much to build the Cayman Islands.
They should be appreciated every day.
Everybody knows someone who has lived long enough to qualify as an older person.
Too often it’s too easy to forget about the older people in our lives or to mistake their physical frailties for frailties of mind or character.
We may feel a disconnect because the experiences they had when they were younger have nothing in common with the experiences we had at the same age.
But if you engage an older person that disconnect will disappear.
They can teach all of us so much if we’ll just slow down and lend an ear.
Too, there are many older persons in our community who may need a helping hand around the house or a little assistance with running errands.
If we live long enough we’ll all eventually become older persons.
Remember that each of us will want to be treated kindly when we reach a mature age.
Throughout the world the population is aging, in part because of improved medicine.
Since 1950, according to the United Nations, the proportion of the global population aged 60 or older has grown from one in 13 to one in 10. By 2050 an estimated one in five persons on earth will be older than 60. By 2150 it is estimated that one in three will be older than 60.
Remember it is older people who, by passing on their accumulated wisdom and values to the young, have ensured the survival and progress of our society.
Find an older person today and spend some time with them.
You may be surprised at how much you learn and how happy you’ll make that older individual.
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