I VERY much enjoyed your series on older people (“Grey Matters”, The Herald, March 16-25)).

I retired from teaching at the age of 60 and began training as a volunteer counsellor with a local agency. This inspired me to go back to university at the age of 62 and do a postgraduate diploma in counselling.

This then led to me being offered a part-time job with the agency. At the age of 70 I am working two-and-a-half days a week and thoroughly enjoying it and have no intentions of retiring in the meantime. It was encouraging to read in one of your articles that older people who are in employment are contributing to the economy and that we are not keeping younger people out of jobs.

Maggie Scott,

33 Morrison Street,

Kirriemuir.

IT was rather nice to read that Angela Constance regards us older generations as an asset to Scotland. (The Herald, March 24). There was I enjoying being a bit disreputable in my own sweet way. I refuse to have a mobile phone and I sometimes find myself in a “bit of a spot”, as when I missed the last bus home and was preparing to spend the night in a bus shelter on North Bridge in Edinburgh. I was rescued by some lovely university students. After all, it was students’ parents who had filled every available hotel room, it being Freshers Week. There are some great young guys about at midnight prepared to help old(ish) ladies.

I very much warm to the poem Warning by Jenny Joseph. Lines warn that “when I grow old I shall wear purple ... sit on the pavement ... go out in my slippers in the rain, and learn to spit”. It also says that a red hat will be worn, and I often wear my red hat. I still don’t spit in the streets, though. I need padding so that I can wear my walking boots. It was lovely to have the cataracts removed though. The colours I see now are amazing. Thank you, NHS.

Am I “an asset to Scotland” now that I am old(ish?) I hope that I am not too much of a nuisance and I did work into my 72nd year.

Thelma Edwards,

Old Comrades Hall,

Hume, Kelso.