Making social connections. Building wellness.

My husband and I lived in our home in Little Canada for 29 years, but three years after my husband died I decided it was time for me to move.  I spent months searching and visiting senior living sites and found a lovely unit for sale at a nearby Applewood Point residence. In March of 2019, with the help of my wonderful family, I moved into my new home.  As I walked in the front door that day to sign the paperwork, I met Janette. She greeted me with a smile on her face and a gift bag to welcome me.  I soon learned that she lived across the hallway.  She had been assigned to be my mentor. She had moved into the building three years earlier when it was first built.

At that time I wasn't clear about what “mentor” meant, but I soon learned that Janette was there to answer my questions, show me around, introduce me to other residents and more. As we worked together day by day, our friendship grew and thrived.  Janette has become a very close friend. I have grown to love and respect her along with her little dog Sunshine. Even though Sunshine is blind, she knows my voice and comes to me with tail wagging when I'm at the door. Janette and I care for each other and want to look out for each other's safety and health.

We have a “contact connection” phone call each morning at 7:55 to ensure each of us is well. We share our plans for the day and learn if there is anything we can help with.

It took a leap of faith to move in to a new community after living in the same place for nearly three decades. It is such a blessing to have such a wonderful friend living across the hall from me. We share our life stories, laugh a lot and support each other daily. Throughout the pandemic, we realize how important close friendships are and how necessary it is to have them.

Jean

Whenever we have had new neighbors move into the neighborhood, my husband and I make a point of delivering a plant with a card welcoming them to the neighborhood. The card contains our first and last names, the members of our household including pets and our phone numbers in case they need to reach us.

Over the years of doing this, we have seen relationships blossom and grow. One recent example is a new neighbor, a young couple, who have lived next door for 2 years. We have gotten to know them and have shared a fire in the backyard a few times. This past month, we were invited to share in her birthday party. She said that she wanted to include her friends, old and new. This blessed us so much. You never know what a simple hello (and a plant) will do.

Karla

If there is anything I have learned during this past year full of challenges and uncertainty, it’s that making meaningful connections takes vulnerability and intentionality. I am a mom of three – almost 17-year-old teen, four-year-old “I am too wise for my age” pre-kindergartener and one-year-old sweet baby boy. Somehow, when COVID-19 hit, I thought my kids would be immune and still maintain semi-normal active social lives. After all, there is social media and Zoom for my older one, daycare for my middle one, and hey, the little one just need his parents, right? None of this was even remotely close to the truth. My teenage daughter struggled with loneliness that she could at least articulate, and my younger ones were affected in more ways that I could have ever imagined. When my four-year-old boy looked at me one day and said, “I don’t have anyone to talk to – I must be a bad friend if no one wants to play with me,” I decided it is time to be intentional with how we create our connections.

When the restrictions around visitations were lifted, I decided to swallow my pride and reached out to a local online mom’s group asking if anyone would consider a playdate or wanted to connect and just talk. The response was overwhelming; I soon realized my kids and I were not alone. I connected with a local mom who had a son of a similar age and invited her for dinner. We followed COVID precautions, made sure kids were healthy, and they came over for dinner one random Tuesday night. It may seem strange – a person I have never met before and her son coming over on a whim; however, I discovered unlikely new friendship not for just my little one, but also for myself. We shared a meal, talked for a long time as our boys played, and discovered how different yet similar we were. Just like myself, she is a mom trying to do the best she can in this challenging time – and that in itself united us instantaneously. All the other components of who we are were just learnings and perks of getting to know each other; it was our vulnerability and desire to be connected with another human being that created our bond.

Since then, I take every chance to talk to people at the store, gym or anywhere else I go. People may not see my face behind the mask, but they can notice the smile in my eyes. Sometimes those small, short conversations seem so meaningless, yet they create a connection between all of us and remind us of our humanity and “togetherness.”

Janna

I live in an apartment building with 12 units. I didn’t really get to know my neighbors since moving in, and since I work from home I don’t really see a lot of them regularly. We have a chalkboard in the entryway to our building, and one day when I was headed out the door I noticed someone had started drawing a picture. So I added to it. I came back home later that evening and my mystery neighbor had added on even more to the image. Another day, I was coming inside when I noticed they’d drawn up a tic tac toe board. I added a move each time I passed the chalkboard as I left the building, and each time I returned home the mystery neighbor had played their move. We’ve been playing other games on the chalkboard over the past few months. It’s been fun to make a connection with my neighbor through a simple game – even if their identity is still a mystery to me!

Ethan