[yaps8]

Being old and lonely / alone is really terrifying.

> Jack still misses his late wife desperately. [...] "The weekend is a dismal time," says Jack. "The time can drag. I don't have any friends because all my friends are dead. All the ladies I loved are dead. At this age nearly everybody is dead - except me. I'm still here at 96-and-a-half."

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

> Being old and lonely / alone is really terrifying.

...is it? I don't know, maybe I'm too used to being alone, maybe I just have too much imagination, but that doesn't seem all that terrifying at all.

[stephengillie]

So make new friends. Old people are people.

[simplemts]

It's hard to make friends with people and I'm in my 30s. I can't imagine how hard it would be to "find new people" when you are 90+ and probably can't even drive.

[yaps8]

It think it's also hard because at this point you don't want to make new friends beside smalltalk (which he does).

Imagine having been with your spouse for 60 years, your friends 40-80 years (?), your children I guess at least 40 years, having a new friend has nothing to do with this, you will never know them this good and neither will they.

[stephengillie]

When we make better the enemy of good, there's no end to what we can't do.

[charlesdm]

My grandfather, who is 85, made a new friend a few months ago. He's in his 80s as well.

So it's definitely possible!

[astura]

Yeah, my grandma had an extremely active social life well into her 80s (she died at 85ish) even with significant mobility problems. She lost my grandpa 15 years before she died.

[simplemts]

Definitely possible, I'm just highlighting it as hard. The last time "making friends" was easy was in university/college.

For me (anecdote), it's only gotten harder as I've become an adult... then married... then harder as a parent... etc.

[agumonkey]

I think the tough part is building something new after experiencing loss ..

I see that in my family, aunt, etc they complain they're lonely but I think it's even worse for them to suffer bad or too short relationships. Heart ache.