This is an important topic. I think we all know at least one elderly person who has these traits. I try to stop by to say hello when walking my dog, and give them just a little bit of human contact in the day. Sometimes people need to be beckoned out of a shell they've created around themselves. And sometimes family is far away. The little 5 mins. out of your day to greet an elderly neighbor and give them a chance to talk about themselves and see someone is interested will mean so much to them. We can each be a bright spot in people's lives if we can just make the time to.
Thank you for this reminder of how bad things can get for people if there is no one doing this for them.
You are a great person for doing this those little things in order to help your elderly neighbors!
You know, I hadn't even really thought of it in this context until I read your post. It was just instinctive to think of how they might need someone to bring contact to them, because they never have a reason they need to go out anymore. I think I'm fortunate to live in a neighborhood where people feel safe enough with each other to know we can all drop by each other's houses just to say hello. I hope I grow old in such a neighborhood myself, whether I'm still here and it's still this way, or I'm somewhere else it is that way. We all need this attentiveness from the people around us at some point in life.