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Context: "Sweetie, we(,) old people(,) need some help every now and then,” she lifted her hands, beckoning him to her."
I'm not sure if we need a comma here. It seems to be a parenthetical phrase or simply an object. Using comma seems to me to be the correct option, but I've seen many examples in similar sentences with the comma omitted.
"Sweetie, we(,) old people(,) need some help every now and then,” she lifted her hands, beckoning him to her.
"We" marks the noun phrase as definite, so commas are not required.
"We" is a personal determinative here, where together with "old people" it forms the noun phrase "we old people" functioning as subject.
What is expressed in addition to definiteness is person deixis: "we" denotes a set containing the speaker
The parenthetical commas are not necessary or correct in the phrase "we old people."
You are correct in thinking that the phrase is a little redundant. The speaker could have just said "old people need some help now and then" and leave it implied that they are part of that "old people" group. Or they could have said "we need some help now and then" which is still grammatically correct but less useful at explaining why they need help.
But just being redundant does not mean a phrase is parenthetical. "Old people" is not a separate clause but simply a double object alongside "we." Using parenthetical commas breaks up the sentence in a way that is not reflective of how the words relate to each other.
