Monday, April 30, 2007

Making Friends with Rita (Sunday with Rita)




What do you do when you move to an independent living retirement community. You discover that no one really knows more than 2 or 3 people, and everyone is kinda lonely. This one doesn't like that one, and that one doesn't like someone else, and it was all cliquey and depressing. She decided to do something about it.

My mother made a rule for herself to never sit at the same table twice for meals. She always wore a name badge. She met everyone, and started telling people that gossip and rudeness weren't to be tolerated. "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything!" It caught on and the mood of the entire complex began to change.

Now she holds a monthly "newcomers" mixer which is officially the last sunday of the month. I was priviledged to have been able to attend last night. Each month there's a theme, and after introducing each other, she breaks them into small groups. Last nights theme was geographic. (Last month it was favorite types of pets...it split evenly between cat people and dog people). The California people and the NY people and the southerners etc. all got together.

Lifes too short to be without friends, and if I ever learned anything from my mother, it was that if you want a friend, all you have to do is be a friend. Thanks, Mom!
And, Rita says she and new friends are truly "VINTAGE VEGAS".




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