Listen
to this... I was watching the French news the other day and there was a
documentary on a growing phenomenon in Spanish cities: Pensioners having to
share flats.
The
reason for this is mainly the increasing cost of the rent, making it hard for
pensioners to keep up with it. The
people in this documentary were between 70 and 90 years old and my first
reaction was to think “how sad...”
How
sad it must be to leave behind most of your possessions, which often represents
most of your memories at that age. Having to part with it because you can’t
afford to keep your house and obviously you can’t bring your old house into a
single room it must be very emotional. Of course I did apply my own standard
to it, because I am terrible with little things that represent things from the
past. For example, I have lots of train tickets from significant journeys taken
ages ago! I blame my mum (once again for this). She is terrible, she keeps
EVERYTHING! I am not kidding guys; she keeps empty plastic fruit trays to make washing
up sponges holders... Anyway I digress...
In
this documentary they filmed 8 pensioners, as said before aged between 70 and
90 years old. Most of them were even sharing their room. Most apart from one
gentleman who thought that sharing a flat was ok, but sharing a room that’s
taking the biscuit!
They
establish rota deciding who cleans the bathroom each week. I suppose they must
have each a shelf in the fridge. They gather every evening to play cards and
have a drink at the weekend... what do you think? Not much different than young
professional sharing a flat, isn’t it?
Well, there was that amazing story. One night the
old gentleman, who didn’t want to share a room, had a heart attack and one of
the ladies in this flat found him. She became a real friend for him, came to
visit him every day while he was in hospital and took him to all his doctor’s
appointment once he was out of hospital. They got to know each other really
well and... Fell in love! He was so grateful for what she did for him that he
took her all around Barcelona and she saw places, that even if she had lived
there all her life she had never seen before.
Seeing
this I thought you know when they say “every cloud has a silver lining”, they
are true...
It
is up to us to see the silver lining or to focus on the cloud, so make sure
that for every cloud in your life you see the silver lining!
