Dear Mavis,

During a visit to my doctor I asked him, “How do you determine whether an older person should be put in an old age home?” “Well,” he said, “we fill up a bath tub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the person and ask them to empty the bucket.” “Oh, I understand, I replied,”a normal person would use the bucket because it is bigger than a spoon or a teacup.” “No”, he said, “A normal person would pull the plug. Do you want a bed by the window?”

(A letter from John Davies to the letters page of “The Oldie”, April 2014, a magazine designed for senior citizens)