This story was on the local news a few days ago. It's the tale of Saint Louisans who rally and come to the funeral of a local veteran who had no relatives.
I anticipate that I will die with no relatives. I have a brother who isn't in good health, I had step-relatives but we don't keep in touch, and my closest cousins are second cousins once removed whom I have never met, and so I read this with special interest.
I think the article was written very ambiguously. Since the article does not say specifically that the crowd at the man's funeral consisted of total strangers, I think what I am reading about here is a funeral well attended by a man's friends and acquaintances.
It is remarkable that someone has friends? Is it remarkable that elderly people have friends? Is it remarkable that veterans have friends? Why is this news?
The second paragraph begins with "dozens of strangers." The last line says that "the Patriot Guard also showed up," and a quick web search says that they're an organization that attends military funerals if requested. But it is written up as a human interest puff piece. Based on the content of the one you linked vs. what I found by doing a web search, I would bet that the guy who wrote up yours just did it off of a press release with minimal changes. When I looked up Wunderlich's name in elsewhere, a different source says that he was 50 (which I don't think of as elderly) and that he was involved with an organization that serves homeless vets. It also says that that the USO and a cremation services firm put out the call for attendees.
I will also say, separate from the article... my mother is elderly at this point-- she's 79, and she's been in bad physical shape for almost 6 years now. She survived a major stroke, but it affected her brain and her mobility pretty heavily. Her circle of friends has shrunk a lot. After she retired, her social life consisted mainly of friends she met while volunteering and while walking her dog in her neighborhood. I don't think she's seen any of her volunteering friends in years, and the only neighborhood friends that I ever hear about any more are a woman across the street and one next door... and them, I only hear about rarely. I'm feeling depressed thinking about it now--she gets a ton of family support, but friends would be a real boost. I get why she's fallen out of the circles, though. I think that the longer an elderly person lives with an infirmity, especially if there's a neurological problem, it may actually be more remarkable that they have a handful of friends, if that.
Posted by: Grace | March 05, 2019 at 09:41 AM
Grace - well, that sounds better. Thanks for doing that research. When i’m Older, I plan to take the same path as my Mom. After she retired on disability, she had one day scheduled a month when her five best friends came over and made themselves breakfast in her kitchen. They’d all share breakfast, then her friends would clean up. Those were special women. I hope I have friends like that when I’m old.
Posted by: TheQueen | March 05, 2019 at 10:09 PM