Seniors services: You’ve Gotta Have Friends

Seniors services: You’ve Gotta Have Friends

At 101, Bill has the knack of making friends with people of all ages.

The former civil engineer is still in good health and lives independently in Langley. When the weather is good, he often heads downtown on his motorized scooter to go shopping and drop into Langley Association for Community Living’s You’ve Gotta Have Friends program.

“I just open the door and hear ‘Hi Bill’,” he says. “I have lost a lot of old friends but I do have my family close by, so I’m not lonesome. But I like to keep busy.”

In the last two years, he’s met many new people at the drop-in centre, including 18-year-old Chris, an intelligent and articulate young woman with Asperger’s syndrome – a form of autism.

Bill enjoys chatting with Chris, who shares an interest in the science professions. Bill has many stories to tell. He helped build the Lions Gate Bridge in 1937 and afterward was never without work until he retired at the age of 65. “I have been retired longer than I have worked,” he jokes.

The drop-in centre opened in September 2006. “We try to dissolve feelings of isolation,” says Janice McTaggart, one of the two part-time coordinators of You’ve Gotta Have Friends. “We try to meet people where they are.”

United Way of the Lower Mainland provides hope and opportunity for the seniors community. When seniors suffer from isolation, poverty, and homelessness, we all lose.  In supporting seniors services, and allowing older people to stay active and live independently, we lessen the impact on our health system and benefit from a lifetime of experience.