"Can I call you Granddad?"

I feel like it's the middle of the night, and I can't sleep because I'm on the other side of the world and the time zone just doesn't match my system. I'm listening to the late night talk radio which easily blends into the early morning classic tracks programming. I wonder if anyone else on my side of the world are listening, or if it's just me and all of the insomniacs of England.

In between public service announcements and the latest from the top Brit pop bands, I pause mid sentence in my book to listen to an elderly man calling into Jezza's Virgin Confessions.

Typically I tune out during Jezza's show, but today, I was sitting on my bed, amid a pile of afghans and wool blankets, preparing for the typical trash that I've heard various times before, women left by her husbands, men who've been left by their wives. Elderly ladies complaining about the state of the world. I've heard it all before.

This afternoon when I stopped to listen, I lay on my bed listening to the comforting gravel voice of this kind British man. I didn't catch his name, or his age, but I assume him to be around 85. He was just calling to say that his wife died ten years ago, and that in the 35 years that they were married they did have rough bits, the had rows, but they stayed together and they worked through things. He commented on how many couples today simply walk away from each other when things get a bit shaky, how some turn to drinks, and some turn to harder drugs.

That's when Jezza piped in with some wisdom from his mother, and the same generation as the elderly man, "In the old days, people used to make their beds, and then they had to lie in them. And if things got rough, you just had to stay in the bed and help to make it again."

Now, I'm not fond of the elderly as a group. I don't despise them either, I just don't understand them. I've had too many run-in with angry old men, and prejudice old ladies. They are from an age that just doesn't understand how things work now. I pity them, it's like adapting to life on mars. When they were born they barely had radio let alone central heating. Things like poverty and race divided up the world. That's just the way things were.

This old man, I wished I knew personally, because he seemed so casual about being old. He knew that to many of the listeners he would seem ancient, but he also knew how to talk without stepping on anyone's toes. Jezza asked if he could call him Granddad, and the man was okay with that, and I think everyone listening wished they could call him Granddad. It's a rare thing when a person of his generation can speak publicly about his views on society and not offend the vast majority of viewers.

Occasionally when I do listen to the midnight talk radio I hear something that touches me, or makes me think, I'll consider it later in the evening. I listened to this man, he said something that made sense to me. "People just leave." I leave. That's what I've taken to doing when things don't go my way. I'm not going to anymore. I'm going to stay and work things out. If I eventually leave, it won't be on harsh terms. I'll be able to face the past without the knots in my stomach and my sealed lips.