Making senior social connections

Lee Saphos and Betty Keckler found friendship with the common history of childhood. They enjoy each other on bus trips and reminisce of stories growing up in Lakewood.

Personal connections are the basis of being human. We cannot survive without the care of someone else in our infant stage. We cannot learn the fundamental skills of evolving into a person without being taught to eat, walk, speak and learn. We need each other.

Social ties are important not only to one's quality of life, but also one's longevity. Studies indicate that lonesomeness can be as much a health concern as high blood pressure, obesity and alcoholism.

In senior living, making a social connection and meeting new people can be layered with the unsettled emotions of a young adult going out into the world for the first time. However, in senior living, the next chapter of life seems to be spelled in a common language of understanding what it is like to meet new neighbors and make new friends. How about re-connections with friends from your childhood, school days, neighbors where you raised your families, co-workers and colleagues?

Westlake Village hosts reunions of "friends of old" where paths may cross in many arenas in our community. We have many heartwarming stories of friendships of days gone by that redevelop into days of new. Betty and Lee were childhood neighbors growing up in Lakewood just a street apart. Their brothers were "best friends playing in the yards, running through the fields, just being boys." Betty and Lee did not meet until a My Life Story program in which it was revealed... "Oh! You're Betty. You knew my brothers," followed by "You're Lee! You knew my brothers!" The bond of a common past is something so special and offers a thread to weave new friendships.

Brookdale Westlake Village would like to invite you to attend our monthly social for Coffee and Conversation, Monday, March 25, at 10:30 a.m. in our Pub for a friendly social gathering. There is always a new – or old – friend waiting for you to make that social connection.