Let me point out the issues with old people:
1. In general, their ability to learn declines over time. This may be due to lack of use of a talent. A lot of people reach their comfort level and decide to not learn any more. A bit of this is due to cognitive decline which happens from age 40 on but increases after age 60.
That "ability to learn" phrase is a canard and easy slur that HR and technical managers use as standard practice when rejecting anyone that falls outside the 22-39 age range. They just say that as a put down, like acting like anyone not like you is stupid.
But, regardless, it forms the overall hiring expectations. You go in at a severe disadvantage.
"due to lack of use of a talent." - Or it may be due to OVER USE of a talent, and therefore having no feeling of freshness or discovery in a newer tech area.
Example: I attempted to learn Java in the early 2000s but: I had no current project that used Java; I had no idea what kind of applications I should target to leverage my past experience; Java seemed like a step backward to a slow-running interpreted environment, and technically inferior to C++ and other tools available; and I only found code examples that were very simplified versions of stuff I'd developed in older languages.
In short it didn't feel "right" as in productive. I felt like I was trying to jump on a moving bandwagon and I really wasn't motivated. So I kept doing C++ until I couldn't find a replacement gig, which was 2010.
Can we at least start a discussion on the *possibility* of older people working in IT? What would it take to do it? Do some targeted marketing to MIS departments in funeral homes?
Funeral homes don't have MIS departments.
It would take working for or starting a company that valued your skills. The probability is that you would need to start the company as so, so, so many companies do not want to hire old folks. That means identifying what it is that you offer that other people will pay for.
That's exactly what I meant about trying to discuss the marketplace without direct experience with a marketplace. A funeral home will use cloud based leased applications for business management, accounting, and other areas that "MIS" would have dealt with in the past.
The market for technical services has changed. Today IT is outsourced quite cheaply as a purchased service even at the smallest company level. Many of the local jobs have evaporated.