Just into the second week of December, I received a message from an editor with a news organization based in Kitchener-Waterloo. The greeting was pleasant; despite the fact that we’d never met, they hoped I was doing well.
Then came the ask—the foundation of a possible story idea.
“I’m wondering what Schlegel does for the old folks over the holidays who may not have family,” the editor wrote. “Do you have programs that help them not feel so alone?”
I know the editor was well-meaning. As someone who trained as a journalist and worked in the field just long enough to know I didn’t want to spend my days bringing negativity to light, I understood the pull toward the image of the lonesome senior and the magical Christmas program meant to cure sadness. That image tugs at the heartstrings—and it’s one mainstream media increasingly relies on. Our newsfeeds and headlines are filled with stories like this, and far too many that are worse.
But the contrast to loneliness and isolation is community—and community isn’t a program.
I shared a few examples. At The Village of Winston Park in Kitchener, weekly festive feasts have grown into large, joyful gatherings that draw the broader community into the Village. People on the Village waitlist come from their homes to take part, even though they may be months or years away from moving in. Residents with loved ones nearby are there, and those whose loved ones live far away are equally immersed in the joy. This isn’t a program so much as neighbours coming together during the holidays.
We do something similar in my own neighbourhood. We call it “Friendsmas.”
I also invited the editor to The Village at University Gates in Waterloo for a holiday luncheon along Main Street. We had just finished bringing more than 70 residents down from their neighbourhoods, where team members and volunteers—myself included—served a Swiss Chalet–catered lunch. I spent time with two residents in particular, helping them with their meals and getting to know them. Barb and Brenda are good friends who live in the same neighbourhood within the Village and cherish the time they share. Barb lost her husband five years ago, and at University Gates she receives the care she needs. She misses her husband, of course, but she also speaks warmly of the friendships she has built with her neighbours and the team.
As I finish typing these words, a group of residents on the retirement side of the Village are hitting the first notes of a choir performance they’ve been working toward since October. Residents from across the Village are gathering for the concert, and I’m on my way there too.
In the end, the reporter never came, which is too bad, for across all of our Villages, during the holidays and on ordinary days throughout the year, there is always a story to be told about the power of connection.
Togetherness, you see, isn’t a program, and the true contrast to loneliness is community.
