Gareth O'Callaghan: Our elders made our lives possible. Treat them with the respect they deserve

Each of us has a duty of care to support our elders — the same people who made life possible for us — and it's not a lot to ask

Gareth O'Callaghan: 'Life is complex and deviating, with many unexpected interruptions, and the occasional reminder of our mortality.'

Shortly after the pandemic restrictions were lifted last year, I spent one of my weekly train journeys in the company of a nun called Catherine.

Not ‘Sister’, just Catherine. She was wearing jeans and a casual jacket, and her mousey brown hair was streaked with grey strands. She agreed with me that she didn’t fit most people’s traditional expectations of what a nun might look like, and she most definitely was not traditional.