Just saw an elderly JW man...

by zengalileo 44 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  exwhyzee

  You must be a very special person in real life.

  Oh...well thanks for saying that Shamus...like everyone else, I suppose I have my moments. I'm pretty handy, having worked in most of the trades at some point or another and it's the only thing I have to offer really and I usually am the one who is helped the most. These old folks are so trusting and hopeful about what they have come to believe. It's hard to see them struggling and yet so thankful for what they believe Jehovah is providing for them when so many around them are so much better off. They are from another generation, one that doesn't have such high expectations (other than living forever) and is able to do without much of what younger people consider to be necessities. They often know what true suffering is and are able to take day to day inconveniences of daily life in their stride. I hear people say that they are going to fight getting older....kicking and screaming all the way. That doesn't sound very pleasant to me....instead, my plan is to get older with the same grace and style as some of these folks have done and possibly inspire someone younger than myself that it can be done.

  Hopefully the old man in the original post is the same way and only appeared to onlookers to be tired and beaten down.
• 

  shamus100

  exwhyzee,

  you can do anything you want as you age. http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/year+finishes+marathon/5560267/story.html

  I too helped an older person out. I faded away and when she passed away nobody called me or told me about it. Bad assosiation, you see. Those losers knew that she walked to the grocery store at 88 years old and didn't lift a finger to help her. Field service, you see.... and the old 'you've outlived your usefulness'.

  They did nothing for her but show up at her memorial infomercial. Nice.
• 

  unshackled

  To Serenity Now and Unshakled: My husband and I are roughly the same age of your parents. We were both 3rd generation and true believers. We have been phsycally out a couple of yrs beginning with illness and depression. However, we have been mentally out only a couple of weeks. This site did the trick because of threads and posters like this .

  3rdgen...thanks for posting that and congrats on getting out. Guess there's no point in giving up hope others may come to their senses, including parents in later stages of their life.
• 

  MrFreeze

  Really reminds me of this:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tkzc983aE0
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  cult classic

  There is a 70 ish year old long time elder here who recently walked into his congregation during the meeting. He dropped several taped up boxes of literature on the counter and told the attendants that he never wanted to be contacted again.

  It's never too late to get out.
• 

  serenitynow!

  3rd gen, that is encouraging. My mom though is quite mentally ill and because of WT crap like the 1969 Awake telling her not to go to school, she has barely 2 nickels to rub together. She has devoted her life to that org, and the only thing that gives her any happiness is the thought that she knows the bible better than even many JWs, and because of the WT has specialized knowledge that makes her better than everyone else.

  Thanks to her mental illness, and the social retardation that goes along with being a JW, she doesn't have any friends and would never interact with anyone if she didn't go to the hall. She also has a terrible relationship with her children. What a waste of life.
• 

  moshe

  For the lifer fulltime JW pioneers/COs (over 65) who find out they have a 300/mo Social Security benefit, they can probably apply for and receive SSi, which I just checked, is a maximum of $1048/mo for a couple and about $690 for a single. If Bethel won't provide for them in their old age, Caesar will. Until such time as Jehovah's Kingdom solves all of mankind's problems, it is up to us humans who are humane, to take care of the elderly. The WT leaders are anything but humane towards their elderly members.

  added- I just received an email from a friend that documents some of the Bethel heavies receiving over $100K/yr salaries. The WT wealth seems to not trickle down to the little people who slaved away fulltime for WT profits.
• 

  hamsterbait

  i think of some old woman or man who was put away for like - forever - for a crime that carried a huge sentence at the start of the 20th century:

  Girls who got pregnant were often locked away forever as mental defectives, as were underage homosexuals.

  Imagine coming out of jail into the real world at the age of 80 or 90??

  HB
• 

  steve2

  problem is these old cantankerous long time Dubs are the very worse to receive help or advice in exposing what many have spent 50 years plus defending.

  There are so many aspects of being old that are kind of sad. But I do think some of us who are looking old age in the eye aren't so sentimental about the demands and pitious state of old age. Hell, a lot of the old JWs I knew from wayback were obnoxious, given the licence to be so all the more because of old age.

  Everything about old age is grump-inducing; it's just that being a JW gives you an extra-reason for being grumpy. There are a lot worse things than being an elderly JW - like being an elderly person living in a crime-infested housing estate or being an elderly person who is being exploited by family for your money.
• 

  Balaamsass

  It is never to late to learn THE TRUTH or be a Borean. The wife had a great conversation with her daughter yesterday about unconditional family love and apologizing if she had ever made her feel "less than"..even unintentially for not being a "sterling JW". She had an AWAKENING a few years back. While I never said anything, and have NEVER believed in Shunning for disassociation, at times I was a bit judgemental. Now the shoe is on the other foot. :)

  It is really sad how so many of these elderly ones are dying in poverty and obscurity. Most gave up any career choice that required further education or even some missed meetings. Most felt retirement savings showed a lack of faith. Some put off having Children, or shun unbelieving children who could bring them comfort in old age.

  My mother, -now in her 80s- has been battling depression, especially since the newest, newest, newest, newest, "generation" explaination and yet another funeral for a old friend. HER mother LOVED reminding us: "This Generation will not pass away" (She died of old age 40 years ago) Mom remembered as a kid old firebrand Rutherford telling them WW2 would end in Armagedon. A little buzzed, she looked down at her drink, and she almost cried when she said: "My family..we all thought we would be walking arm in arm into the new system, now they are almost all dead......"

  At this point I only have the heart to give her a hug and agree with anything she says.