‘Once you’ve been initiated into the Elderly, the world doesn’t want you back. […]. We – by whom I mean anyone over sixty – commit two offenses just by existing. One is Lack of Velocity. We drive too slowly, walk too slowly, talk too slowly. The world will do business with dictators, perverts, and drug barons of all stripes, but being slowed down it cannot abide. Our second offense is being Everyman’s memento mori. The world can only get comfy in shiny-eyed denial if we are out of
sight. […]. Us elderly are the modern lepers. That’s the truth of it.’