Being in old age has doubled my fussiness, which was already my birthright. I've just acknowledged a characteristic that can be annoying, but isn't. Let's be fussy, yes, that means our rights should be respected. Let me clarify, this doesn't mean I'm one of those people who makes noise everywhere and is always complaining. No, not at all; I'm rather a quiet person, who suffers my sensitivity in silence.

I don't tend to be offensive to others. If I don't like something, I leave the place quietly. Of course, I avoid returning, but, on the contrary, if I feel comfortable, I can go morning, noon, or night. What I really want to address is that habit, which has developed among many people, of ignoring the forms of address "sir" or "ma'am," which, it seems to me, has its respectful meaning and goes down very well with those of our age.

My oldest grandson will soon be 18, and since then I've been a grandmother. There's no more beautiful expression than that. It comes from the lips of our grandchildren with their newly formed voices, and they have an incomparable charm for me. I get emotional remembering their voices. I have seven grandchildren, plus two daughters from a goddaughter who also call me Grandma. That's tenderness and love at its finest.

I frequently hear vendors or service providers in some places, perhaps to remind me that I'm an older woman, or, on second thought, to make some kind of distinction, say: "Come this way, Grandma," or out loud: "Who's looking after Grandma?"

Something inside me stirs, and I see the adult individual, too old to be my grandson, and I think he should treat me differently; he shouldn't just call me Grandma. Sometimes I've confronted them: "Grandma?" I tell them, but I sense they see me as those women who don't even like their grandchildren calling them "grandma" so they don't look old. No, I repeat, that's not my case.

But there's something worse: I'm going to do something at a bank or something that requires the use of technology, and they ask me who I'm with, and I show them my son, who's waiting outside, and they bring him in to explain to him what they should be explaining to me. He's more confused than I am, because he has no idea about my banking transactions.

_{Con mi querido nieto mayor, mi orgullo.}

So I repeat the question so they can explain the procedure to me. Obviously, there's a prejudice here: "This woman doesn't know anything about technology and won't know how to change a password." (They don't even imagine I write on Hive using my own resources.)

Yes, what we're dealing with is a type of discrimination and a priori beliefs; this is generally done by young people. It's true that the changes taking place around the world are overwhelming, and increasingly, many older adults are unfamiliar with technology, which schoolchildren already understand without difficulty. I like to know, and even though I may make mistakes in efficiently using technology, I never rest; it's all for learning.

Thank you for your kind reading.

My content is original.

One image from Pixabay with its respective source and another from my personal archive.

I used Google Translate.