Who needs a friend?!!!

The last month has been very busy. Getting hold of carpenters, electricians, plumbers and then dancing to their tunes and times. We have been settling down in the new city and really warming upto it. But there are times when I wake up and really don't know where I am. Geographical disorientation! I had a guest last week- old friend of my father's. I was marvelling at how old age finally catches up. And there he was talking about his son, daughter-in law, his grandchildren. He hardly sees his children these days, they are forever travelling, or working late or on weekends taking a short holiday on those expensive resorts. His grouse was that they hardly socialise, no friends coming over or them visiting any. Just colleagues, phone calls from office, work, work and more work. "Well its OK now that you folks are young and wanted, you are skilled, do a good job, you are on a roll, a high that your professional successes give you. But when you retire, grow old, no longer have your routine to fall back on, no place to go to every day, no mails to check, no meetings to attend, what then?"
I wasn't really paying attention so far to his conversation but the last one got me. Yeah what then, when we are old and our children have flown the coop...we need friends, we need constancy, stability of familiar places, old faces, poeple who have known us long and know us well. People who have genuine affection for us; long forgoten relatives, friends we somewhere stopped talking to..
So guys - moral of the story is start making friends along with buying insurance. Both will be great walking sticks when we need them when we are no longer needed.