Retiring to England to be near family

Believe me Nancy, I feel your frustration keenly. My mum is a widow in her 60s, and I would love to bring her over here. We were originally planning to get her on the retired persons of independent means visa once she was old enough, but they got rid of it before that could happen. There is now pretty much no chance of getting her across. It sucks

I'm sorry about your visa situation. However, some positives are that you have both the financial means and are healthy enough to fly over for extended visits.
My Mother is in her late 70's, with poor health and very little money.  My parents divorced 40+ years ago and I am an only child. 
She does not qualify for the visa either.
We help out financially when we are able to.  Her health issues means that she is unable to fly over-when we moved to England 8 years ago we used to pay for her flight to come visit us.
Sadly we can't make our money stretch to afford yearly or even every other year visits to see her.  Airfare, hotels, and car rentals add up quickly.   We were very lucky in that my daughters and I went to see her over the summer.  It had been 5 years since our list visit.
I phone her at least once a week-she doesn't have a computer so we are unable to video link.
All the best to you and yours.

Thanks to everyone kind enough to contribute. I now understand both sides of the argument and also know I am in a much better situation than many...for which I am very grateful.  Thank you all again.