“The later years”

In the care of others, elderly parents may have started to take the place of young children. But the young children may simply have become old "children", and also still need care, especially when employment is hard to find and housing is limited. Or these children may now have their own children and look to grandparents for support. At the same time the work responsibilities of someone in these later years are likely to be especially arduous. This chapter presents two brief examples to clarify the links between early difficulties and the very diverse ways in which they may be engaged with many years later. As a person moves into the later years of his life he may become softer, more forgiving, less envious, more appreciative, better able to accept life, children, job, for what it is, or they are, rather than what they "should", or "could", or even "might have been".