Cruising Through Retirement

How the older generation toughs it out

If my Mum were to read any of my output here on Medium and saw how much thought I was putting into mortality and the afterlife, she would probably call me a daft ha’porth to be worrying about such matters.

And she would have some justification. While I’m comfortably into my sixties, she is mid-eighties and still going strong. My Dad is a little less steady on his feet but just about keeping pace. Both of them together are enjoying a peaceful retirement in their little place in Durham, punctuated by as many cruises as they can rustle up funds for.

Which the rest of the family treat as a harmless little quirk, by and large. Except that they have one scheduled for a few weeks time, which they show no inclination to cancel or reschedule. Maybe not so harmless, after all.

A few weeks ago, a list of countries most affected by the Coronavirus epidemic had China and Korea in first and second places, with the cruise ship Diamond Princess in the third slot. Yes, this little microcosm was crowding out the rest of the countries in the infection stakes.

Since then, numerous other cruise ships have been refused entry into various ports. Off San Francisco, half of the passengers and staff tested on the Grand Princess turned out to be positive, with the result that the rest aren’t rejoining the general public any time soon.

I run my fears past my Mum and she pretty much brushes them aside, despite the planned cruise being scheduled to visit the most infected countries in the Mediterranean.

The cruise firm has been in touch and all passengers will be checked before boarding and again on their return to the ship after any land-based visits. No mention of what precautions will be taken against transmission by the crew.

In one way it is admirable.

Mum and Dad belong to the opposite of the snowflake generation. Let’s call it the coalface generation, where you just toughed out your challenges and got on with whatever you needed to do without complaining and stopped when you were told to stop.

There’s another generational aspect of their approach which is more questionable. They are accustomed to assuming…

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