Lonely older Americans is nothing new.
Back in 1961 I had a part time job in a large hospital in Iowa. I observed so many older people who received
no visitors.
This is one of the things that I constantly ask my dad about, he’s in a retirement community.
I ask him all the time to have someone with no family to come share our table for a meal. He and his GF both tell me there are very few people with no family that comes to see them or have abandoned them.
That absolutely breaks my heart because I can’t imagine ever letting my parents or siblings be alone in that kind of hour of need.
“I observed so many older people who received no visitors.”
I worked in a geriatric facility in Des Moines, Iowa after leaving the military for about a year. I loved it. I loved being around seasoned citizens. Hearing their stories and probing them for what they thought about the world.
Old men sugar coat nothing. Old women sugar coat everything.
I would have stayed there longer if the money were better, but it was transitional work.
To your point, visitors were everything to the people there. And you’re right, many had no visitors at all.
It’s a rough road when you travel life alone....
It’s my wife and me against the world.
Nor are people on the road “full timing” anything new. My wife and I sold our home and hit the road for 4 nice years. When we wanted to move we did, but we tried to stay in one locale for at least two weeks in order to get a discount on the camping space. We knew folks who volunteered and worked along the way, but we did not have to. (Our next egg was growing in the market. And when it crashed, we held on until it recovered. The Trump market is something to behold. )
However, we sold the RV when we decided to settle back into a retirement community. The time on the road was a wonderful memory with many locations and friends. Not something I regret at all.
If it was the only way to make ends meet, I would accept this too, but like others have already posted, there are good and bad decisions, and even living out of an RV takes a little money. There were people in the parks who did odd jobs for the park to defray some expenses. I believe they were not unhappy to do this.
Nor are people on the road “full timing” anything new. My wife and I sold our home and hit the road for 4 nice years. When we wanted to move we did, but we tried to stay in one locale for at least two weeks in order to get a discount on the camping space. We knew folks who volunteered and worked along the way, but we did not have to. (Our next egg was growing in the market. And when it crashed, we held on until it recovered. The Trump market is something to behold. )
However, we sold the RV when we decided to settle back into a retirement community. The time on the road was a wonderful memory with many locations and friends. Not something I regret at all.
If it was the only way to make ends meet, I would accept this too, but like others have already posted, there are good and bad decisions, and even living out of an RV takes a little money. There were people in the parks who did odd jobs for the park to defray some expenses. I believe they were not unhappy to do this.
That’s why family is so important, and by that, I mean an extended family who are there for financial as well as support for other things in life.