Just a little more than a year ago, Denice Hughes wrote a column in the Central Kitsap Reporter telling how very important it is for older people to stay active.

How can a person stay active when the busses have stopped running on Sunday? How can a person who has always gone to church on a bus that dropped them off at their church get out when they don’t have that transportation?

Bus runs have been cut back, too, in the mid mornings and mid-afternoons and some people can’t even get to their doctors and dentists during the week.

As Hughes pointed out, depression is not a fact of life as we age, not a personal weakness, a lack of faith or a sign of failure. The loss of routine functions, the ability to walk, read, bathe, the loss of relationships, death, divorce, or retirement also contribute to the symptoms of depression.

Is this the way we should treat our elderly? Let’s get those buses rolling again. That will put smiles on the faces of the depressed and lonely and put determination in their minds that they can conquer their feelings of loneliness and depression.

Florence Meyer of Bremerton