As The Telegraph’s Agony Uncle, I weigh in on your dilemmas – the good, the bad and the ugly
While on holiday in Spain my wife and I, both in our late 70s, met and were befriended by a slightly younger, and obviously quite affluent, couple. Back in the UK they have pursued the friendship energetically, inviting us for the weekend and sending long emails and messages with details of places they have stayed or eaten out. We are pleased to have made new friends as this is often difficult in later life, but we find their eagerness disconcerting.
We have become concerned that we are being softened up for some sort of sales pitch. They run a property development company marketed at our age and demographic, and while we haven’t actually been passed any literature they talk a lot about their projects. Even if this is not so, we often feel our role is to be a passive ‘audience’ listening to tales of their glamorous life. Certainly they don’t ever seem to show much real interest in our lives. Nevertheless, they are affable people – should we just set our qualms aside and pursue the friendship?
– Steve, Lancs
Even if this couple do run a property company targeting your age group, this seems to me like a heck of lot of time and effort devoted to just one potential sale. Surely if that was what was going on – a ‘softening up’ exercise – they would have made their pitch by now? If your suspicions are correct, it’s a very long courtship dance.