Agony of lonely hearts in advanced age

Some people desire that they be left alone. Born introvert and enjoying solitude in an atmosphere of contemplation, such people are expected to be voracious readers if not claustrophobic and mentally deranged. Creativity at times demands loneliness as the best possible way of expressing itself. But the average mortals who are not creative enough surely find imposed loneliness as heavy as a hundred tonne stone crushing their soul. Children cry out in fright when they discover themselves alone. Someone rushes to alley their fear and comfort them.
However there is a different type of children in advanced age, the elder citizens, also badly requiring care and comfort, who find their loneliness more like the punishment Prometheus suffered. Chained by Zeus with a rock, Prometheus has to suffer the tearing of his liver out every day by an eagle. The elderly who have no one to take care of themselves suffer the gnawing at their heart when the future is but an endless void before them.
These are parents or a single parent left alone at home by their sons and daughters who live either away from them within Bangladesh or even abroad. In some cases, they live with their busy sons and daughters in-law but so marginalised their existence is that they hardly get any company of the men and women of the moment. Of course there are exceptions to these patterns of life where both sons and daughters in-law regularly enquire about their need or health, spend sometime with them so that they do not feel neglected. But in most cases the reverse is true.
There are cases where a parent has to be always on the move because s/he has to stay with a son or daughter for a specific period as arranged by his or her daughters and sons living in different towns/cities or a village. It becomes particularly terrible when parents are separated from one another because one of the sons is not ready to take the entire burden and sends one of the parents to his brother or sister. Hiding her tears the old woman reminds her man of the need for taking medicine in time. She repeats many such 'must do' things and the old man feels an invisible lump of pain choking his throat.
If both the old man and the old woman live together, they can at least stand by each other and during illness or other critical moments take care of. Yet memories haunt them. For a single parent of either sex, the absence of a son or daughter living abroad, no matter how affluent and comfortable it may be, causes continuous haemorrhage of the heart. S/he accepts the absence only because nothing could be more desirable than the children's welfare and happiness.
Parents make sacrifices for the sake of children's future and when the latter are established, the calling of duty takes them away from their parents. The mental agony parents undergo and the attendant problems they face have little solution. They suffer the pain in silence. But at times it may be overpowering. When life becomes meaningless and there is no joy but nostalgia only adds to sufferings, an old man or woman die from within. They suffer from depression only more so because they cannot share it with anyone because to share it they need to confide in someone who is ready to give them a patient hearing.
Old homes may be a part solution to the problem, where they get the company of people like them. Like co-travellers for the rest of their lives, they develop an understanding and a bond on the basis of fellow feeling. But unfortunately, the geriatric homes are few and far between. The one at Agargaon demands a sizeable amount for living there. Besides, it capacity too is limited. Another one situated at Gazipur is known for caring for the uncared for.
These two facilities are not enough for the need of elderly people who would like to spend their remaining days under organised supervision because they cannot take care of themselves. When old homes are limited, some voluntary organisations can be formed with young people who would be ready to render some voluntary service for old men and women. For example, they can visit them and spend sometime with them, do some family chores like kitchen shopping. Such a service will act as a break to their monotonous life. The poor lonely hearts will however need more than such service for healing their hearts' wound.