With the money from geriatric care, Felicitas K. can finally afford a senior citizen ticket for public transport
Mobility is very important to Felicitas K. “The piece of freedom is huge for me,” says the 69-year-old woman. It was only thanks to donations from the Frankfurter Rundschau’s geriatric care campaign that she was able to afford the senior citizen’s ticket for public transport two years ago.
The ticket costs 365 euros per year. A lot of money for Felicitas K., who after deducting the electricity costs has to make do with about 300 euros a month basic security.
“There aren’t any extras,” says K. Actually, because thanks to the elderly, the Mühlheimer can use buses, trains and trams throughout Hesse with her annual ticket and visit her mother in Eschwege, who is 90 years old and needs care. Felicitas K. can now go to her bank in Offenbach at any time. “Such a relief” is the ticket for the single woman who has never been married, as she reports.
When she is fed up with being alone, she says to herself: “Man, I have to get out of here, not always sit in the booth, then I’ll just drive away”. If your health allows it: K. suffers from “severe osteoporosis”, has severe osteoarthritis in his hands, and can hardly open bottles or pickle jars. And after a fall, her back is affected, she has “months of pain” behind her. On days when she feels good, Felicitas K. goes to her old homes in Darmstadt and Frankfurt. There she happened to meet old friends on the street.
After learning to be a saleswoman in a perfumery, K. worked for years in the restaurant business, at times even running her own bar.
“I loved always doing something new,” she says. She was also mobile for work, moving to Bavaria and the Black Forest to work as a waiter. Then came the health problems. Attempts to retrain failed. She canceled a life insurance policy as a pension for the guarantee of her pub.
Finally, K. ended up in the basic security. “Suddenly I was in the Hartz IV thing,” she says. In addition to financial worries and health problems, the main burden in old age is the lack of social contacts. “If you can’t communicate with people who are on the same wavelength, that’s not good, but I know that too,” she says. CD
–
