The fact that this Commission is going ahead, despite the fact that Jo Cox was murdered, is testament to the impact she had. It is the best memorial to a remarkable woman.
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=0ahUKEwi34Km9z5vRAhXNcFAKHeneDjwQFggvMAM&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fuploads%2Fsystem%2Fuploads%2Fattachment_data%2Ffile%2F418513%2Floneliness-isolation-presentation.pdf&usg=AFQjCNEVnWIIYVJpalYjV4c7HPBNAlfYSQ&sig2=UpxAn1Cpd8YzkSD360aXDA&cad=rja
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/dec/28/jo-coxs-campaign-to-tackle-loneliness-lives-on-with-help-of-friends
Personally I'm wary about saying I am lonely. Since being widowed I am alone - that is different. At the moment I am capable of running my own life. It's not a life I have chosen, but I can deal with it effectively & relatively happily.
The reality of being on your own 24 / 7, except for interactions with friends, aquaintances & family - if you are lucky, is that everything is done by you. You have no choice but to cope regardless of how you feel or what the problem is.
Absolutely everything, from replacing the batteries in inaccessible smoke alarms, to coping after surgery is down to you. If you are lucky, & I am, you can afford to pay someone to do maintenence jobs for you. (That actually doesn't help at all if the smoke alarm battery dies in the middle of the night!)
When you have been out you return to open the door on silence & close the door on the world. I'm lucky I volunteer for an Oxford theatre & the Community Centre. So I get out & meet lots of people. I swim regularly so I know a local group of women. I have good friends, although mostly they live quite a long way away. I have a daughter & her family. I know a few neighbours, but living in a city isn't like living in a rural area.
I eat my breakfast listening to Radio 4's Today & my supper with PM. At lunchtime I do a crossword. Meals are quiet & not lingered over, not really a pleasure to be enjoyed & shared. My Blog is my main conversation - My way of dealing with my life as it is. It will remain as a reflection of me when I am no longer here.
There are so many people who are not as fortunate as I am. Loneliness is no respector of age or sex. Loneliness can easily become depression, isolation & even suicide, something far more destructive. Somehow loneliness is even more poignant at this time of year, when many people will not have a "Happy Christmas" or "Happy New Year". Some won't even have a home.
You can be lonely in the midst of family & other people. Loneliness is a state of being & is pernicious & more prevalent than you might think. It is a silent, common, dis-ease of the 21st Century & there isn't a handy pill to cure it.
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