"They seem to suggest that the younger generation (age 20s to 50s) has fewer friends that the previous generation (60s and above). I thought that my mother had a lot of friends, but I'm beginning to doubt that. She socialized with a lot of people, but they dropped her like a hot potato when she started showing signs of Alzheimers." Maire-Aine

In their defense we need to recognize that her long time friends were were her peers. When she "started showing signs of Alzheimers', they may have felt vulnerable. It may easily have frightened them.

Not that that response is an insightful, compassionate one. But perhaps understandable.

Something else above struck me: What we label as 'cultivating solitude' or 'considering very few (people) to be friends' may well have some relevance to a mother's experience. The acorn and the tree, you know.

Not that I think that's necessarily bad. I too like my solitude but at age 70 I prize and enjoy my friends more than I ever did when I was young. I can't tell you how many people I have left in the past.

If the day comes that I am 'dropped like a hot potato' I hope to be able to remember that we tend to get back what we gave.