THE CRUCIAL CALLS

Margaret Foley, 76, is a widow who lives alone in Glasgow. She explains what receiving a Friendship Call from Age Scotland volunteer Alice means to her.

I’ve certainly shed a few tears in the last weeks and have been feeling uptight and anxious. I’ve lived alone since I lost my husband, John, six years ago to cancer. We were married for nearly 50 years and I really miss him. My son’s family is self-isolating because he has very bad asthma. I can only speak to them on the phone because my computer broke three weeks ago. It’s nice to hear their voices but it’s heartbreaking not being able to see my two grandchildren.

Most of my friends have passed away, too, so I’ve been feeling very alone and Covid-19 has just compounded that loneliness. I’m high risk because I have diabetes and COPD. I called the number for Age Scotland after I saw it on a letter from the Scottish Government. Two days later, I got another call from Alice. It was lovely to hear her voice and for someone to take the time to find out how I was doing. I liked that we could talk about things that weren’t about the virus. It gave me a chance to forget about all that for a while. It was nice to get that call because I did feel very alone. I don’t like living by myself right now.

With everything that’s going on, it’s very frightening. It’s easy to fall into a depression when you are alone anyway but it’s even worse now.

That’s why the phone call was so nice. Alice was so friendly and caring. She told me she had the same anxieties as I did, so I didn’t feel so alone. It was very reassuring and hearing her voice after I hadn’t spoken to anyone in a while. That meant the world to me and truly lifted my spirits.

I can’t recommend these Friendship Calls highly enough. It’s exactly what we need in these times. The world is scary right now but you’ve just got to get on with it. I have faith that these brilliant scientists will make a vaccine. We’ll be OK and we will be able to meet again, as the Queen said.

In the meantime, we just have to have patience. Organisations like Age Scotland will help people like me through this.

Life can be scary and lonely. It is nice to be able to talk about happy things