Ageism

Two incidents today have made me realise how guilty I am of Ageism. Both are connected with books in some way so I don't feel they are altogether irrelevant to this blog.
Quite early this morning I was phoned by one of my WRVS (Women's Royal Voluntary Service) Books on Wheels volunteers who is 87.
Her role, in company with her 86 year old husband, is to carry heavy baskets of books to 4 residents of an old people's residential home. She phoned to say that the arthritis in her legs has recently become very painful and she will have to give up her task at the end of the month. I was expecting to have to find a replacement for her 10 years ago!
Soon after I put down the telephone, I checked my email and found a reply from a 95 year old Palestinian lawyer whom I had contacted by email the previous evening to ask about the path he had taken pre-WW2 to gain his law qualifications. I requested this as part of background research I needed for the book I am writing to replace the already published first volume of my trilogy. This new novel will cover the period from 1933 to 1948 and will centre on a woman who was a minor character in the original first volume.
I received a far clearer and more succinct reply from this elderly lawyer than I would have expected from anyone from a younger generations, the only irrelevance being his apology for boasting about the hard work required to gain his credentials.
In those days truly there were giants in the land

Regards,
Margaret