Ann Kennedy: 'Elder Care' means serving a life sentence for a crime I didn't commit

My wish to move forward in ageing to the end in a comfortable, wholesome fashion is merely an aspiration now I have entered Elder Care

Ann Kennedy and her dog Squirt: 'As a 70-year-old, I am now pitched, with no choice or consultation, into the section run by the HSE community called Elder Care.' Picture: Garry O'Neill

We have all lived reasonably well if we get as far as to be considered "old". Geriatricians refer to people in their 60s and 70s who are relatively healthy as "young old", so therefore I have four years left of youthfulness in older age. 

The writer Gene Cohen refers to people in their 50s to 70s as being in the "liberation period" of their lives, a time often of retirement, of innovation and experimentation.