They looked ancient, a venerable condition that visits all living creatures. With that status comes, inevitably, insecurity of physical movement and a marked decrease in mental acuity. What seemed disturbing under the circumstances was their very obvious frailty. They moved slowly, deliberately, but haltingly and seemingly painfully. Both, husband and wife, gossamer-thin white hair, enfolded skin, used walkers. They had emerged from the very place I had just exited, a bag awkwardly in hand, manouevring themselves and their walkers slowly into their vehicle.

They were well beyond the state of decrepit.

His head was perpetually inclined to one side, his neck appearing frozen in that attitude.

He was once, obviously a force of nature to be reckoned with, tall, robust, self-assured one imagines, and needing no assistance for any conceivable task at hand. On their car's front was one of those poppy-embossed licenses issued only to military veterans. Pride that he had served his country.

He was no longer that robust, well-built man that he once had been. He was wizened, shrunk into himself, a shell of the military officer he once represented.

That he was still driving a motor vehicle, was presumably in possession of a validated driver's license, was beyond belief. He was scarcely able to commit his body to pedestrian functions, how could he manage the physical effort required to drive a car? What might his reactive capabilities possibly be in situations where swift action would be required?

Independence is a fine attribute. As someone myself advanced in years, I reckoned they might be in their early 90s, perhaps even beyond. While I feel that determination to remain independent as long as possible is a healthy alternative to simply allowing a swift decline to set in, I don't believe that anyone should compromise the health and safety of others to achieve their personal satisfaction in independence.

I shudder to think of what might occur if this driver and his passenger were involved in a minor collision, even more if they were the cause of an accident impacting dreadfully on someone else's life.

Several years ago, when we had parked in the lot of a supermarket, with several empty spots on either side of us, I had emerged from our car, opened the back passenger door to extract something, leaning into the car as I did, door wide open. When I straightened up and made to close the car door, I felt a heavy, hard impact. Someone planning to park directly adjacent to us had pulled in just as I was finishing up my little manoeuvre.

I hadn't been hurt badly, just bruised, but I was angry and I let the elderly driver of that car know how angry I was. Wasn't his fault, he said blandly, I was in his way. Besides, he said, defensively, his wife is blind, didn't I notice his wife was blind? No matter that I pointed out she wasn't driving, he had been.