by Patricia Hughes

Created on: March 06, 2009

The cheapest places to live for seniors?

Well. for a start it depends on your personality. Are you grumpy and bitter? Better live on your own! You can rant at anything and anybody at will, with no-one around to tell you to be quiet, or worse still, cheer up. Living alone makes it easy for you to spend the rest of your life without a smile on your face.

If you hate getting dressed, the same applies. Want to spend the whole day in your bedclothes? Can't see the point of cleaning your teeth or having a shower occasionally? Can't be bothered to comb your hair or have a shave? (It applies to older women too!) Or do you prefer to do without clothing altogether? All these things are so simple when you live alone with no-one else to see.

There are problems, of course. If you are inclined to complain, it is a real problem having no-one to complain to. And after a few months of not looking after yourself, you forget what it was like to groom and wash, because there is no-one there to remind you.

Most people, whatever their age, prefer to live with other people because that's what human beings are good at: socialising, which includes quarrels and rows, disagreements and bad atmospheres, as well as birthday parties and shared festivals. The trouble with living with other people is the noises they make (some funny, some far too loud and some revolting!), the dirt they bring in, the smells that surround them and their terrible habits. Why, we ask ourselves, can't they be paragons like us?

If you think I'm digressing from the headline, you're wrong: I'm just trying to approach my suggestion about the cheapest place for seniors to live in tactfully, with sensitivity and emphasising the advantages. What you have to remember is that elderly persons are still people. They have the same need for company and family and friends and the same vulnerability as everyone else. What's more - and this came as a surprise to me when I discovered it - older people don't see themselves as old, any more than younger persons label themselves as young. They just are who they are. Age is what others see, not a defining feature of character.

Let's face it: living on your own is the most expensive way for anybody to live. Meals for one cost more than meals for two or more; a room with one person in it is colder than a room filled with the body heat of several people, so the heating bills are proportionately higher and have to be paid by one individual instead of several; all the gardening, decorating,

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