WHAT THIS SITE IS ABOUT
AND WHO GRANDMOTHER ELLIS IS

This site is devoted to the observations and opinions and ideas of a woman (myself) who happens to be of an "elderly" age. .I will be adding my thoughts on many subjects as time goes by, as I have a great many interests and strong feelings and ideas about the way people behave, and many things that are happening in the world.

Although I am an older person (past middle age, but not yet 'ancient'), "older person" is not the first quality I think of when I think of myself; but I wanted to make my age known from the beginning so that the reader will know the age category (age does sometimes actually make a person more widely experienced, more thoroughly educated, and even 'wiser') these thoughts are coming from; I will add a short autobiography to the site soon so that even more can be known about me (I myself dislike reading anything where the author's background that qualifies him or her to comment on a subject are not presented, be their qualifications ever so humble; the important thing is to know "where they're coming from" and if they seem to be reasonable people who are 'informed' about the subject being presented - or at least admit that they aren't fully informed when they are not).

I started this site as an outlet for my very strong ideas about how the elderly are so often treated as children, but that narrow topic was very confining, since it is only one of many, many subjects that I am interested in and feel moved to speak out about.

Of course, "Grandmother Ellis" is not my real name, though "Ellis" is a direct ancestor's name and I chose it because it fits the title, and I like the way it sounds. I am a grandmother, however. At first I called myself, in fun, "Granny" on this site, but then I realized that although meant to be amusing, it didn't seem right in that one of the things that irritates me most about how younger people treat older people is when the younger people call (or refer to) older people by their first names. .Calling an older woman "Granny" is not really in the same category as calling her by her first name to me, and I don't consider it necessarily rude or disrespectful; it depends on what "Granny" thinks of it. .However, using the term "Granny" for myself on this site was a bit too light-hearted since I am indeed serious about the subject of showing respect for older people by being careful what name you call them or how you refer to them - and the truth is that I was doing what I would recommend that no one do, to themselves or to others. .And so, I'm now calling myself Grandmother Ellis, "grandmother" being the most respectful form of the "title." I will be writing my own essay about this subject.

THERE IS A "COMMENTS BOOK" CONNECTED WITH THIS SITE, IN WHICH YOU MAY ADD YOUR OWN COMMENTS.