Her Best Friend Is The Telly

Many older people experience isolation on a daily basis. Some food for thought.

Her best friend is the telly

Her best friend is the telly, it gets her through the day.
It talks at her from dawn to dusk in a funny sort of way.
The telly tells her secrets just like a loyal friend.
How to book a trip online and the money she should spend.

She hardly sees a human, unless they’re on the box.
The only other sound she hears is the chiming from her clock.
There are always things to gaze at, she loves those cookery shows,
programmes on the garden and the many things that grow.

Her meals are from the microwave, she’s mastered that big beast,
Those gnarled and crooked fingers no longer cook a feast.
She always smiles serenely at the carers who come by,
Her solitude is quite concealed they never see her cry.

She’d always been gregarious, the life and soul, they’d say,
but now she watches all the soaps, no matter, come what way!
Each day is filled with daytime shows and many old repeats,
after lunch she has a doze, her a little post lunch treat.

Her Bertie always told her she was his true princess.
she’d giggle like a little girl as she felt so truly blessed.
Her friends are there no longer, she remains the only one,
she gets a letter from Christopher and he is her only son.

He’s living in New Zealand now, with his wife and three young boys,
she planned to visit long ago when life was still a joy.
So now she gets his letters and she treasures every word,
she reads about their daily lives and all that has occurred.

There’s no room for complaining, she accepts her lot in life.
she knows she’s had a value as a mother and a wife.
So why she spends each day like this, it’s story that’s untold.
perhaps it’s ‘cause she has no choice as she is getting old!

Teresa Harrison-Best

(Rewritten 8^thApril 2020)

This poem is inspired by a wonderful monologue by Alan Bennett, ‘A Cream Cracker Under The Settee.’