Sean and Daniela (one of the F&F leaders) having fun at the selfie station before their visit!
My experience with Friendship and Flowers (F&F) began on March 12. I arrive promptly on time where I was greeted by the kind and awesome members of Little Brothers at their Jamaica Plain office. The members of Little Brothers were very helpful, providing me and the other volunteers with a presentation on how to best communicate with the elders we were assigned to meet. This short presentation was extremely informative and interesting and left me with a feeling prepared to meet my elder. After a quick stop at the selfie station, we were given a vase of flowers to bring to our elder, and I headed out.
My elder was located at the Susan Bailis Assisted Living home which was a short drive into Central Boston from the Little Brothers office. The living center offered free parking for volunteers, so I had no trouble finding a place to park my car. The center was very warm and comforting, and it appeared well equipped to provide elders with a caring environment. My elder was a nice 80 year old man, living in the facility. When I arrived he was waiting for me in the building’s common room. He clearly was looking forward to having someone to talk to as we talked for almost an hour straight about a large number of different things. He told me about his time as a professor of literature at NYU, and what it was like to live in New York City. I told him about my work at school, and how I planned to go into Finance, or Accounting in New York. He told me about his brother and how is brother became rich off of being an electrical engineer. After that we talked about cooking, and how important of a skill it was to learn how to cook. He proved to be very intelligent and have a very collected mind despite his age. We finally ended our talk after 45 minutes because he had to leave to go plan his 80th birthday party (which was the next day!) It was a very refreshing experience to be able to talk to someone that full of life in spite of their age, and I look forward to participating the next time I am free.
Special thank you to our guest blogger and Friendship & Flowers guinea pig, Sean Healy, for his reflection on our very first F&F event. Want to meet an elder too? Register online for April, May, June, or July!