LETTERS

Defence of the elderly

1. Ross Fitzgerald’s article is a powerfully insightful reminder of an inconvenient truth our generation are all too quick to ignore – That older people are indeed people. (“The very real danger of the cashed-up boomer stereotype” 1-2/2)

It is convenient for the struggling daughter or son to ignore that older Australians have the same hopes, dreams and economic fears as they do.

There is nothing wrong with the older generation giving to the youth. But it is shameful that coercion guided by expectation and entitlement becomes the oft …

Elder abuse in Australiaby Ross FitzgeraldMy principal preoccupation this year is elder abuse.

As a widowed, sometimes lonely 80-year-old in the early stages of dementia, I am one of the vulnerable old who are open to the possibility of personal abuse and financial exploitation.

After the death in January 2020 of my beloved wife and friend of 45 years, the artist, actor and model Lyndal Moor, I have lived alone in “Greystoke”, an 1898 terrace house in south Sydney.

I am lonely especially because our only child, Emerald, my granddaughter Ava, 8, and …