storyThey thought they were still young and dynamic. But the Covid-19 has caused people aged 60 and over to slide quickly into the box of fragile people, to be protected. Or how to go from baby boomer to grandpa boomer in the blink of an eye.
Lancelot, 5, can’t wait to have another year to discover the preparatory course. To his mother, who mentioned the solemn purchase of a first satchel, this little Parisian added, all smiles, another reason to rejoice at an entry to the ” large school “ : the prospect of wearing a mask, compulsory protection – until now – for all students from the age of 6. “When I put a mask on my face, it‘is as if I were an adult. J‘I already wear them when I take the metro,” he explains, with unfeigned enthusiasm. We wish Lancelot and his friends to escape the experience of a masked beginning of schooling, but, for the time being, this new ritual imposed by the pandemic appears to him as a form of promotion, early and manifest access to the world of grown-ups. Losing baby teeth is no longer the only rite of passage to the age of reason.
At school, barrier gestures seem to help promote a form of maturity and hasten the exit from childhood. “If the students in my CE2 class agree to wear the mask as well, it‘is, they say unanimously, because it should make it possible to protect their grandparents”, testifies a school teacher. We have to believe that the Covid-19 has upset the order of generational priorities; it is no longer up to the adults to take care of the little ones, but the reverse.
a little vexing
Vulnerable, fragile, people at risk: the vocabulary that has qualified these famous “grandparents” for two years is intended to be protective. But isn’t it also a little vexing for those who until then lived as eternally dynamic retirees, preparing their weekend trek under the benevolent eye of their general practitioner (“You have your life ahead of you, Mr. Dupont! ») and their offspring (“Grandma is kayaking, she is so cool! »)? Like children, “young seniors” have matured a little quickly under the spotlight of Covid-19. In France, 11.8 million people are between 60 and 74 years old, that is to say more than 17% of the population. More affected by severe forms of the virus – according to the ministry of healthmore than nine out of ten people who died from Covid-19 are over 65 – and therefore priority targets for health measures, the over 60s were suddenly embarked, despite themselves, in a vague categorization, ranging from pepper beards and salt to the parchment faces of the nonagenarians, which seems to whisper in their ears that they are more mortal than the others.
“Frankly, I had not yet understood that I was old”, admits Léa Carré, 66
You have 77.7% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.