I think I am about to go into deep depression! Eight weeks ago I walked into a meeting of Ex=service women in a very normal fashion. All of the members of this organisation are between 83 and 90 plus years and they all have some little complaint or other. Of course as we age we get less and less people attendinding but it is a very happy supportive group. Now as to me I am silly enough to act as the Hon. Sec for this lot and am a very healty active {well was} person who they all seem to rely on and come to for advise re their ex-service issues. I am able to help them in most instances as I maintain a close relationship with the local Veterans Affairs office. So in to the meeting I went armed with my case {on Wheels} containing all the things necessary for such meetings and all went off as usual until near the end when one lady came up and asked me for a paper to get the Council Cabs service, I stood up and twisted around to get it out of my case in a bit of a hurry and did a lot of damage to my left hip which was agonising. I managed to walk out of there and drive home but have not been able to walk without a stick and in a lopsised fashion eversince, Seems I pulled the muscel sheath off the bone a little, Well I was to see a specialist and have a neuclear medicine test for my bones etc today. Yesterday my sons wife, a lovely person, who has been suffering from headaches and vision problems for a few weeks now finally went to a doctor who took some notice of her and sent her off at once for an M.R.I. scan of her head and into hospital she went 1 hour later with a confimed cerebral tumour the size of a golf ball at the back of her brain, She is 54 yrs old a mother of 3 and granma of 1 lovely little boy 10 months old. My son and his family as well as her 5 siblings are all in shock and I am trying to do what I can in a practical way for my son and have cancelled all my own apointments in regard to my problem until after her operation on Monday when we will know what the true outcome will be. s\So far we are being given advise that this 90% benign which is good. Must say that my depression feeling comes from the fact that I am 84 and since the leg problem get very tired walking for extended periods which I am now doing more of as there are lots of little things needing to be attended to so that others do not have the worry of them and can concentrate on her. Life is a weird thing, one minute all is well and then all is wrong. Young people are taken and we oldies keep on going. My husband only made it to 50 and one son to 30 but me I still am hanging in there. Most greypaters seem to be aged between 55 and 70,  many of you have still got a long way to go yet, the number of folk over 100 grows every year and is already in the thousand plus mark here in Queensland but it seems that the only people who get heard today are the YOUNG YOUNG, I do write off to people on various issues but apart from a polite reply nothing ever seems to happen.

It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.

I've been on Megs Coffee shop chatline a few times and have found a few things that could be improved. For instance when a username comes up on the chatline it could have the sex of the person "M" or "F" and where they are from, eg: "Qld" or "UK" or "Ger" and it would save the chatline users asking the others those questions. And sometimes it "times you out" unvolantarily.

I have just visited Lorries website, Read the jokes ,some old some new  very funny

Hello, I have never done this before, am very recently widowed and after only 5 weeks marriage. Probably shouldn't be looking around, but I am very lost at the moment, and lonely in this house alone. Would like to know more about this site and maybe have a talk to someone. Thank you Tulip11.

Age and mortality brings about questions, questions about meaning and purpose of life. In my own case, an hour or so before my fathers death, he asked me.."what was that all about?." I didn't understand his question and asked him, what do you mean Dad?. He then asked, "Life, what was it all about?" The question rocked me and even though I did not have close relationship with him, I thought that this was how most people would arrive at or towards the end of life, with that question unanswered. I couldn't answer him with anything meaningful. He died an hour later, at a total loss about his life. This was one of the abrupt events which drove my life, to never have to ask that question of myself. I was determined to know the answer and have lived my own life seeking an answer. 

I have used "finding you religion" as the heading of this article, as it seems one of the avenues older men in particular take, To "go to church" in truth, to maybe find your own  answer to that question, maybe turning to religion is in your heart in truth, or it is checking the box, just in case you need redemption to get into then right place after your death.

The options for church, are wide from traditional and orthodox to eastern mystics. Religion is viewed by many, as church or a place we go, where there are rituals, a community with shared beliefs, but what is it that you are seeking when you do this? I have observed many older men sitting there with their wives, arms folded, not really seeking God, but "doing the right thing"  Potentially opening your self to other paths, such as the eastern or ancient paths of Buddhism or Hinduism, Theosophy, Bahai, Cao Diaism, Gnosticsim, Confuscianism etc are right out there by traditional upbringing, and it is a difficult bridge for many to simply explore them. They offer a more "spiritual" path, than a "religious" path. 

I am not advocating any one particular religion or spiritual path, as I believe that they all are paths which lead to answer the same question,  the question that my father asked me. 

I would be interested to know what others thoughts are on this topic. 

Jeff