Do you live far away from your extended family? You may be interested in reading about the new service which has been set up in New York. Adopt-a-granny is to match up younger people with a much older person. Carla Fenning, the founder of the group, explains, “Nowadays, families don’t live so close together, as young people tend to move to other cities and countries to find work. What happens is that old people are left feeling very lonely, while young people have no grandparents and miss the wisdom and kindness of the older generation.” Adopt-a-granny works in a simple way: young people and old people are matched up on the basis of their interests, their family background and where they live. They then agree to meet once a week (the young people usually visits the person in their old home). “Sometimes the young person helps the older person with the gardening, but often they just talk, share family photograph albums together and drink tea.” Carla says, “I really think that this service has changed the lives of some of the people it’s helped. One young person said to me, ‘My grandparents all died before I was born. Now I visit Annie every week. For the first time in my life I feel like I have a grandmother. It’s a very special feeling.’”