SAN ANTONIO – The Northeast Senior Center is one of the senior centers that gives seniors support and personal growth by providing a sense of belonging and a break from isolation.
“It gives you a reason to live,” 64-year-old Winne Lang said. “You know, be (sic) around people make(s) you feel wanted and needed.”
Lang said she has been visiting the Northeast Senior Center, located at 4135 Thousand Oaks Drive, for four months.
“I wanted to get out of the house, meet people,” Lang said. “I was so tired of looking at the four walls. And then I came here, and I met over 150 people.”
Several studies have been done about senior centers, but the National Council on Aging (NCOA) recently found that people who visit senior centers live longer, healthier and happier lives.
According to NCOA, some benefits include improvement in seniors’ social interactions as well as their emotional, physical and economic well-being.
“I got tired of being lonely, and I wanted company,” 82-year-old Sam Mazy said. “So I came over here. That’s what I do: socialize.”
“You are not in the way at the senior center; everybody is a senior, and everybody is trying to live above ground and not underground,” 86-year-old BJ Williams said. “So it’s a blessing we have somewhere to go.”
Williams started coming to the Northeast Senior Center nine years ago after her husband died. She said it woke something new in her.
“I soon realized after coming here every day to get out of the house these people have similar problems,” Williams said. “A lot of them have lost their husbands and their wives. And we sit and talk, and they help pull me through.”
NCOA also reports that 75% of people visit their local centers one to three times per week, averaging 3.3 hours per visit.
Sam Mazy, Harry Sheets and Hayden Norris have played Rummikub for hours daily with each other for nearly 10 years. The group said they have formed a brotherly bond, joking that they “tolerate each other.”
Mazey said he lost his wife 12 years ago, and coming to the senior center, he not only met his “brothers,” but it introduced him to his second wife.
“That’s how I met my wife here. My second wife, I met her here,” Mazey said. Norris quickly pointed out, “He got married twice, he got remarried twice, he met women here twice!”
Lisa Black, 62, said she feels happier every time she leaves the center because she meets new friends.
“It’s much better after I go home because I’ve been around people, talking to people, instead of sitting at home with the remote,” Black said.