Wielding Wheels

Driving a car is taken for granted until the threat of losing your license due to age, looms. It's true that perhaps your reaction time isn't as swift, and that your eyesight, though good enough, works a little slower than it used to, but you still retain the same need to get around as previously. And the irony is, that even the drivers who rant at elders are going to find out what that's all about some day. When you reach the truly tender age beyond the employed years, you find there are a whole lot of hurdles that occur the day you retire. Suddenly, the world regards you as some kind of non-person idiot. You must go and get tested to do what you did the day before with perfect ease and facility. You are asked embarrassing questions and cooed at disrespectfully, as though you are mentally inept. Fortunately, I have not experienced this personally, but I hear it from the many others who have. Trying to convince those who think that old age is a incurable disease that disables you knowing how to do anything at all, is hopeless. Most people insulted in this manner, suffer it out because they haven't the energy to fight it. Driving a car is essential, especially to people who need to get to medical appointments or facilities, to shop, to visit friends and relatives and attend recreation events. Most elders  try to drive during hours that are not busy as the rush hours. They usually travel well-known routes and stay fairly close to home. Some drive the speed limit, not over nor under, which appears to annoy other drivers who don't. Few drive what the sign says, unless there is a police car around. The matter of being road tested is stressful to anyone, but to seniors who fear that their driver's licence could be whipped away from them after a lifetime of safe and careful driving, is terrifying. And now they are being forced to do so more than anyone else. How is that for democracy? I know a case where the driver in the family is no longer there, and the remaining member cannot drive, having given up his license. There is no family. He has no one to take him here and there. He is too embarrassed to ask relative strangers to drive him where he needs to go. Taxis are costly and public transportation, for this person, is not possible because he has mobility issues. Oh yes, I hear callous individuals say "no problem; he can sign himself into a home or get a care worker in, or  take a taxi or a shuttle service".  Easy to say, not easy to do. Some elders who live alone and are incapacitated somewhat, find the matter of schedules and making arrangements dealing with dates and times, very difficult. Many are movement challenged. They have arthritis and other problems with dashing around trying to catch buses or trains, to decipher schedules and make calls that involve button pushing and no actual person on the line to get specifics from. It's a world made for those who are young, fast moving and familiar with speed and electronics. Some elders are not computer users or cell phone owners and fear learning them. Younger persons don't get it. "They need to learn how to use electronics", "Their bus is right outside the door", "They're too darn slow" are statements made by those not yet at that stage. It ain't what it looks like, folks! Being old is not golden; it's a huge challenge. Be helpful. Be understanding and please don't be patronizing, I ask not only for the grandparent set, but also for you. It's you in the future and it's inevitable. You might be helping yourself!