Wartime spirit helps members of the older generation beat the challenge
WE spoke to a selection of older people from across the UK to ask them how their lives have been affected by the coronavirus crisis.
Defiant Kathleen Hall, 77, from Manchester, said she and her husband Robert, 79, plan to refuse to self-isolate.
She said: “I won’t be staying in. I only go out three times a week to the hairdresser’s, the club and the shops and I’m not giving that up.
“I’m not staying in for four months, that’s ridiculous.
“I’m lucky because I’m 77 but I’m healthy enough. There’s a woman who’s 100 who lives down the road and I’m more worried about her.” Widower Bernard Bibby, 76, from Rochester, Kent, was working as a TV extra in shows including Killing Eve and
The Crown, but has temporarily given it up out of fear of catching the virus travelling into London. He said: “I’ve always got one month’s worth of food in the house, whether it’s tinned or frozen. It’s a wartime spirit. We’ve been here before, you just cope and work together to protect each other. It’s going to upset business but it’s better to be disturbed than dead.” Sprightly Eric Castle is “keeping calm and carrying on”. The 100-year-old, from Leeds, said: “I have no plans to change the way I live my life just because of this virus. I’ve made it this long so I think I’ll be all right. I’m very independent
but I don’t know what people like me are expected to do if the Government says the over-70s have to stay at home. I have no family, I am on my own.”
Tony Herbert, 72, from Leicester, said he and his wife Brenda, 69, have already stopped going to the pub.
The retired company director said: “I’m worried about coronavirus – we’re already being careful.
“We’ve stopped going to the pub. I’m not happy about self-isolating. We were supposed to be going to Spain for one month but we’re going to cancel that.
“My wife Brenda is 69 so she wouldn’t be subject to the self-isolation but that doesn’t make sense because she could just bring it into the house.
“If I have to stay in for four months I’ll go barmy. But I can still do the garden and keep in touch with people on the iPad.”
Barbara Peters, an 81-year-old ballet teacher from Halifax, West Yorks, insists she will “keep dancing” in the face of the worsening coronavirus outbreak. She said: “I’ve just had a lovely lunch out with friends and a nice glass of wine, so clearly I’m not self-isolating. There are some incredibly fit people in their 80s and some really unfit people in their 50s, so I don’t think we can base everything on age.”
Ruth Deakin, 84, from Leeds, said: “I don’t really see the point in being in good health at the age of 84 if you can’t go out and enjoy yourself, so I don’t plan on holing myself away at home. I’m certainly not going to panic like some people, that doesn’t help anyone. “If people keep ridiculously buying everything up they’re going to have a knock-on effect to people like me who aren’t, then we’ll have to start rationing like wartime and we’ll be in real trouble.”