If you live or work at NewBridge on the Charles, one of Hebrew SeniorLife’s continuing care retirement communities, chances are you’ve noticed Irving Backman. Every morning, regardless of weather, Backman laces up a pair of Saucony sneakers, grabs his handheld radio and begins his daily run around our campus.

“I run in blizzards, ice storms and heat waves. I suppose the only thing that stopped me was not rain, but floods, when water is more than two inches deep.”

As a Social Worker and Operations Leader in the Memory Support Neighborhood at Hebrew Rehabilitation Center at NewBridge on the Charles, I am privileged to work with a care team that is committed to helping our residents and their families negotiate a very special, but often challenging stage in their lives.

On March 9, we marked the formal opening of Hebrew SeniorLife Hospice Care with a presentation by Dr. Jerome Groopman that articulated the essential Jewish values of love and hope at the core of our endeavor. We came together to express our gratitude to the generous donors who made it possible and the exceptional hospice team who care for our patients.

Friends are a precious commodity for us all, but especially for seniors. The love and companionship we enjoy with our friends make our lives emotionally richer, and research now shows that our friends can be powerful allies in helping us increase our longevity. For instance, data from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Aging has shown that people age 70 or older with active social lives live 22% longer than those with less active social lives.

The other day I sat in with a group of older adults who had recently moved into a senior housing complex.  They talked about the emotional dynamic of transitioning to a new living environment. They spoke of loneliness, fear of change, and sadness at the loss of their former homes.