My Felicitous Fortune

This article has been submitted by a GrownUps member. GrownUps accepts no liability for its content and the views and information contained within are not necessarily those of the GrownUps website.

Do you go to the shops and call in to the local cafe for a latte and sit watching everyone else chat?

Are your family scattered across the world and you sit in front of the TV wondering where all your friends have gone, maybe alone or maybe with your spouse?

Do you go to the movies and sit on your own in the dark watching the flickering screen, then look around at all the other retirees who are doing the same and want to stand up and shout: ‘lets start a film club’? But you don’t.

I knew my study was coming to an end and would need something to fill the gaps so I made and effort to go out and meet people. I joined several clubs. I went line dancing and to and afternoon tea dance at the local church. I joined the Red Hat ladies, and I joined a little social club I found out about from a woman on the bus. I went to a writers club held at one library and a film club at another. I made a resolution to speak to more strangers when I went out, but, although I met some lovely people, I felt I didn’t fit in with any of them.

I don’t know what made me go back to the GrownUps site, maybe I saw something in the paper or I had a reminder e-mail. I began by surfing through the discussion threads and found out some things beneficial to my health. I could ask a question about my computer, (I’m a computer dummy) and someone would come and answer my question. I got all sorts of information and started to make a friends list.

Then Dave and Richard added the chat room to the site and I was right in there, but it still wasn’t the same as a face to face meeting. Marianne always seemed to be around and, what do you know, she lived in the Auckland area. I asked her to come onto my friends list and when she did I asked her to meet me for a cup of coffee at Devonport.

“Well,” she said, “Once a month I meet up with Mamamia and Georgie for coffee. Would you like to join us?”

Well, knock me down with a feather, of course I would. I can’t tell you for sure what happened then, but I think they were talking about me joining them in the chat room and others people wanted to come along, too. So Mama and her friends changed the venue to accommodate Missy who was in Auckland at the time and a group met at the first coffee morning of Marianne’s Gang, and never stopped laughing. Now if you have been reading the threads you will know what happened after that. If you haven’t I suggest you do. Just put Marianne’s Gang in the search engine.

The thing is, guys and gals, there is no need to mooch along the street on your own and live life on your own. If you have a bubble waiting to burst, you can join one of the groups that are starting up all over New Zealand: check out the blog – or start a group of your own. The only rule is you have to have, and exercise, a wicked sense of humour. So what are you waiting for, it’s free, it’s easy and it’s so much fun.

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