"I Thought I Was Too Old to Make New Friends": Margaret's Story

Margaret Sorley turned 79 last February. She has lived in Forfar for most of her adult life — raised her children on Glamis Road, worked for years in the town's linen trade, buried her husband David three years ago after forty-seven years of marriage. After David died, she says, the days started to blur together in a way she had not anticipated and did not know how to describe to her family.

A friend mentioned the Vibrant Health Advocates Veritas walking group — a free, volunteer-led walk departing from the town centre each Tuesday morning, covering roughly a mile and a half at a pace described in every piece of literature as genuinely unhurried. Margaret was sceptical. She had mild osteoarthritis in her left knee and had told herself, with a certainty she now questions, that her walking days were mostly behind her. She also, she admits, felt something she struggled to name at the time and now identifies plainly as loneliness-adjacent embarrassment: a reluctance to be seen as someone who needed to join a group.

"I thought it was for people in worse shape than me, or maybe I thought it was for people in better shape than me. I'm not sure. I nearly didn't go."

She went. The walk took her through the Castle Park and along a quiet residential loop she had not walked since David was alive. The group was eight people that first morning, led by a Veritas volunteer named Sheila who has been running the walk for three years. They stopped twice — once to let someone catch their breath, once because a member spotted a kestrel hovering over the playing fields and everyone wanted to watch. Margaret walked home afterward and, for the first time in months, found herself looking forward to the following Tuesday.

That was fourteen months ago. She has missed three Tuesdays since — once for a hospital appointment, once when the weather was genuinely extreme, once when her grandchildren visited from Edinburgh. She is now one of the more experienced members of the group and has informally taken on the role of welcoming newcomers, particularly those who arrive looking, as she puts it, "like I looked that first morning — like they might turn around and go home if nobody notices them."

The physical change has been real. Margaret's GP noted at her last annual review that her balance had improved and her resting heart rate had dropped. She manages her knee with appropriate footwear and by paying attention to the surfaces underfoot — knowledge she picked up partly from a Veritas health information session on joint care for active older adults. But she is more interested in talking about the people she has met: Archie, the retired headteacher who knows the name of every tree along the route; Jean and Helen, who went to the same secondary school and had not spoken in sixty years until they met on this walk.

The Tuesday walking group is free and open to all Forfar residents aged 60 and over. No referral is needed. Participants are asked only to wear suitable footwear and to let the walk leader know of any health conditions that might be relevant. Details are available from the Veritas office or at any of the charity's weekly sessions.