Hollyhocks at Sheet

This picture was taken in the summer. It's amazing how the plants grow vigorously with no soil to speak of, the old wall acting as their support.
'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' written by Deborah Moggagh is a film I want to see. The idea is that older people (or as the author says those that are 'very grown up indeed') might prefer to live in a hotel in India rather than a British care home. India because it is hot and somewhere that older people are still respected, even revered, for their wisdom and life experience.

I have noticed that after a certain age, unless we demand to be noticed, we seem to become invisible to others and what is worse, some of us don't seem to mind. I agree with Dylan Thomas who said, 'Rage, rage against the dying of the light.' Whatever age we are, male or female, we have as much right as the next person (or politician) for our voice to be heard. The generation that, as children, were told to be 'seen but not heard' has got some raging to do.

Let's look at alternatives for our parents, for ourselves, so that we don't inevitably end our lives in care homes.