The time has come for Norah to look forward

Norah has seen a lot of life. At ninety years old, she was born in England at the end of World War One and lived through World War Two in occupied France. She’s experienced personal tragedy, losing both parents to tuberculosis when she was very young and had to endure being separated from her family from an early age. At the age of two and a half, she was sent to an orphanage in Belgium where she grew up.  Throughout her life, Norah has suffered bouts of extreme ill health, and as a young woman she was only spared the horrors of a German concentration camp because she was too sick to be moved.

When she returned to England at the end of World War Two, she didn’t speak a word of English. She worked in a convent caring for nurses, although she continued to battle long periods of debilitating poor health herself. Since then, Norah has devoted her life to caring selflessly for others. Most of the care work she undertook was unpaid, with board and lodgings included and for eleven years, Norah cared for a polio patient.  When he died, she was physically and emotionally exhausted. As a result, she reached retirement age with virtually no money to speak of, and certainly not enough to enjoy her later years.  There are now 2.5 million pensioners living below the poverty line and the rising cost of living means that every year it becomes a bit more of a struggle for older people like Norah to make ends meet. In many ways, she embodies the very people that Independent Age are trying to help to live fulfilled and independent lives. Norah has spent a lifetime putting other people first, yet still struggles to make ends meet. She mends and re-mends old clothes and finds it difficult to afford life’s day to day costs, particularly if it is a harsh winter. She grows her own vegetables to save money and can ill afford to make any necessary repairs to her home. After a life serving others, Norah and people like her, deserve to continue to enjoy the freedom and mobility that old age can offer. A gift from you today could make such a difference – can you help? Donate now online

Photographs and names have been changed to protect the identity of Independent Age beneficiaries.