The stale bread in the sandwich

THE ‘SANDWICH GENERATION’ IS A relatively new demographic, of which I find myself a member. This group of unwilling warriors are the ones tasked with looking after their children (financially), babysitting grandchildren (constantly) and, due to advances in medical science, still caring for an older generation.

Let me tell you; the kids are not the main problem here, it is the older ones, the shouldknow-better elderly relatives that require the most effort. Okay, generalisation alert - but what a rude, ungrateful and racist bunch this lot has turned out to be. If this is what we have waiting for us in later life then sod dry January, keep drinking!

Kevin Willis

Everyday problems from the operator’s point of view...

Before you start penning letters of complaint, I am not referring to any World War 2 heroes who come equipped with a ‘I fought for your freedom’ get out of jail card. No, these are the children of those real warriors, and their biggest battle came when applying for a disabled badge for the Honda.

My wife and I spent Christmas and New Year on board the Cunard Queen Victoria ship, cruising down to the Canary Islands in the hunt for warmer weather. The ship was lovely if not a little dated. But the passengers were horrible and even more dated.

When boarding, we noticed eight coffins being loaded into the hold alongside the copious amounts of passenger luggage. Our first thought was how pessimistic that all was, but, on meeting some of my fellow travellers, I understood and even became a little concerned that eight coffins might be a dramatic underestimation on the Captain’s part.

They were mostly late seventies to late eighties and my initial reaction was one of admiration for the fact that they chose to still get out there on a major international voyage at such a ripe old age.

Nuh-huh. I’d been fooled. They complained about the food, the service, the drinks, the excursions, the entertainment and indeed any topic put before them would be met with the opinion that it was “not as good as it used to be”. They cheekily blamed a lack of staff while continuing to revel in a Brexit they voted for as it “got rid of those surly eastern Europeans”.

My tipping point came during one of the excursions. The coach took us to visit Puerto Mogan in Gran Canaria. You know the drill: quaint harbour, arc of sand for a beach and, more importantly, a plethora of colourful restaurants selling gassy lager and seafood paella. Perfect.

Our instructions were to be back on the bus for 15.40 with a view to leave at 15.45 but on return the head count revealed one elderly lady was missing. She, we deduced, was travelling alone so no one knew her predicament.

What happened next shocked me, one fellow passenger stood up to thrust her bony finger toward the Spanish rep. “Leave her!” she barked. “She knew what time we were leaving. We all knew! I say LEAVE HER!”

If her reaction wasn’t bad enough, the rest of the passengers all then shouted their agreement and that the missing lady was collateral damage to their 6pm early dinner sitting. Who eats at 6 o’clock past the age of 9?

I pointed out that the missing lady might have become lost, confused or was hurt in some way. She might have early onset dementia for example. The journey back to the ship would take only 45 minutes so I asked for 10 minutes to go and search for her.

While I was gone my wife had one old biddy lean over and whisper “if he is so much as a minute late, we will leave him as well!”

I went to look for her because 1) I care and 2) doing the job we do, we are told to look out for confusion where the elderly are concerned. Indeed, a lot of the licensing authorities are making us spend hard-earned money so they can put us through various awareness courses to better equip us for spotting ‘red flag’ signs.

Alzheimer’s disease or any form of dementia is a hideous affliction that seems to be cursing many people these days. Of course it is bad for the sufferer themselves but, in many cases, it is worse for any spouse or partner or other family member. They watch helplessly as the person they love loses all memory of them, forgets precious moments and becomes something they would never have wished for - a burden to their family.

Please take a moment to think when driving elderly or vulnerable passengers, take a breath to consider what might be troubling them. These people are the reason we are being trained to care and without a doubt they, and their families need our help. All very worthy and in my view necessary but we should remember the old adage of ‘you earn respect’ never came with any upper age limit.

If half of the behaviour I witnessed on the ship had come from children then it would have seen them on the naughty step, if it had come from teenagers they would have been punched.

After all, It could be a lot worse. You could be asked to pick up any one of the miserable cruise passengers I’ve just had the misfortune to holiday with. That’s my tip to you because, trust me, that lot won’t be tipping you.

n Kevin Willis runs Chirton Grange, contact@chirtongrange.co.uk – 07725467263