Pauline: ‘This is not how one expected to live one’s life when one reaches 81!’
‘My family/friends do not live near me, so I have had no visitors since last March’ January 2021
Pauline is an independent, healthy eighty-two year old, who has lived in her current 2-bedroom flat in EC2 for fourteen years. She used to be a ballet teacher and loves going to the theatre, concerts, museums, etc. Her two daughters do not live in London and they wanted her to move close to the centre of town because they did not want her to be ‘travelling on her own on the bus late at night’. She is also a passionate walker and is in part of three different walking groups. She has an extended network of friends linked with her various pursuits and a stream of visitors used to frequent her home. Her rich social life came to an abrupt end in March 2020, and she has found the lockdowns very difficult: ‘the world is a bleaker place.’ At the start of 2021 she had an accident inside her home – she broke her hip – which has further aggravated her fear of confinement and isolation. Will she ‘live long enough to resume a “normal” existence.’
