No relatives of friends

[Peter56]

I am not normally gifted to writing letters about my personal issues, however, this forum seemed like an excellent place to contact others with similar experiences. I have never been married, have no children and have lived in my own all my life and up until I retired recently I begun to feel the isolation of being on my own and life became worthless to me. I`ve decided to apply to do some volunteer work for some community groups which I think I would find to be very satisfying and fulfilling for me. I have heard back from many community groups that appear to be very keen on me and have sent me an application form to fill out. On these forms, they ask me for my ``emergency contact`` details or ``next of kin`` and my problem is I don`t know or have anyone in my life. I have no siblings, no children, and no friends at all, so I was hoping if there was someone out there that might be in a similar position that might have some advice on this because I am really keep on getting outside and doing something with my life. Cheers.

[Peppermintbach]

Hi Peter,

I hope it’s okay if I extend a gentle welcome to you to the forums. I think feelings of isolation can be very painful and debilitating. It sounds like you’ve been doing things on your own for quite some time...

I imagine with retirement, those feelings of loneliness have only been magnified. Admittedly, I often feel lonely too but for different reasons to you...

I think it’s wonderful that you’re applying to various volunteer roles 🙂 I’m not sure what happens when you’re unable to answer those questions...

I would suggest perhaps contacting those organisations, and explaining your circumstances. I feel it’s likely that they would understand and be very accomodating...I wonder if that’s something you’re comfortable doing...

Kind and Caring thoughts,

Pepper