The hidden grief of ageing

In this fascinating long read essay in The Conversation, Carol Lefevre writes that “disbelief at the distance between the young self and the old self is one of the factors in this late-life grieving. At its root, perhaps, is an internalised ageism: innate, or else massaged into us by the culture we spring from.”

Published: 24 September 2023

national
24 September 2023
Carol Lefevre/The Conversation

Yet she says that “if we become homesick for who we once were as we age, we might remind ourselves of the meaning of nostos and consider old age as a kind of homecoming.”

Carol Lefevre is a visiting Research Fellow, Department of English and Creative Writing, University of Adelaide