Losing a partner or being distanced from your children as they settle into growing their own families is, unfortunately, part of the natural course of aging. It’s among the common challenges isolated seniors face, like navigating day-to-day tasks and meeting basic needs while limited by declining mobility and diminished financial independence.
Within this nuanced narrative, there’s a lingering question: do we talk enough about isolation and are we doing enough to address it?
The psychological, cognitive and emotional toll of isolation makes coping with loneliness as arduous (and dangerous) as facing hunger. As an example, loneliness and decreased mental stimulation can accelerate the onset of dementia — which in turn leads to falls, social detachment and more.
This reality alone is reason enough to act and why those on the frontlines of serving seniors each day, including the Meals on Wheels network, are vital. These organizations and their tens of thousands of volunteers know first-hand that, often, meeting a senior’s needs requires a more tailored intervention and one that promotes critical social connection that prolongs their life and preserves their dignity.
But this fight can’t be won by anyone alone, even a network as deeply interwoven into the fabric of communities across the country as Meals on Wheels, making innovative and strategic national partnerships like the one between Meals on Wheels America and PetSmart Charities® so effective and essential.
The statistics don’t lie: one in four seniors live alone; for many, their pet is their closest companion and only source of comfort.
Caring for a pet can too often become an added burden and a frequent struggle for seniors. What better way to support seniors facing isolation than to ensure their furry companions' long-term health and well-being along their own?
This gets to the heart of Meals on Wheels pet assistance, designed to help local programs do just that — deliver nutritious meals to clients and their pets while going above and beyond to offer so much more. In many cases, program volunteers help get pets to the vet for regular checkups, support them in staying well-groomed and even nurture positive emotions in pets with special treats during visits.
The program even occasionally connects seniors with local animal adoption assistance programs, leading to the blooming of life-changing bonds between owners and pets.
Two seniors native to Knoxville, Tennessee, home of the University of Tennessee Volunteers and a proud southern culinary culture — Judy and Brenda — couldn’t imagine life without their respective pets, Hazel and Brownie, who provide companionship, sometimes facilitate human-to-human friendship and, of course, give lots of love.
Judy + Hazel
Judy lived many professional lives, including working as a secretary, office manager and nursing assistant specializing in home care until a back injury forced her into early retirement — an injury lingeringly affecting her quality of life. Judy deals with chronic pain and limited mobility and often struggles to prepare food for herself.
Eight months ago, she was connected to the
CAC Office on Aging, her local Meals on Wheels program, by a friend and fellow client and now receives nutritious meals two to three times a week.
Beyond receiving meals that are an indispensable and dependable part of her weekly food plan, particularly on days she doesn’t have the strength to cook, Judy equally cherishes time spent with the local program’s volunteers.
“They are precious,” Judy shares, delivered in her charming southern twang. “It’s like they are part of the family.”
Judy’s daughter and four grandchildren are in Middle Tennessee, and the remainder of her family reside in Kodak, neither close enough to make regular visits.
Still, the days between volunteer visits and weeks between family visits can be the hardest.
These days, she relies on her unbreakable friendship with Hazel, her darling six-year-old Maltese, to not feel so alone.
They met a year ago during a challenging crossroads in Judy’s life.
“I was going through a bad season; I lost my husband — it’ll be three years this November — and I needed somebody or something and I've always loved animals. It was time,” Judy says.
As the story goes through a local animal shelter, she was invited to schedule a time to meet Hazel. The location opened up at 10 a.m.; Judy arrived at 10:15 a.m. sharp on the morning of her visit.
“She was anxious, just shivering and shaking,” Judy says of her first encounter with her beloved furry friend.
They left on a walk to get more acquainted and she returned to find a mother and young daughter also inquiring about Hazel.
Judy attempted to calm Hazel down during one incredibly nervous moment as the four played together.
“I picked her up and laid her against my stomach. She laid her head on my chest and she quit shaking and closed her eyes. That [mother] said, ‘Well, she's adopted you.’”
Judy says, “It’s been love ever since.”
“I am so blessed to have found her. I think we both needed each other and I give thanks for her every day.”
Brenda + Brownie
Brenda spent most of her life serving others — 30 years in nursing and 20 years as a Chaplain for Veterans of Foreign Wars.
In recent years, Brenda’s endured a series of injuries, including a knee replacement that left her without a patella for five years and later a broken femur, and now she hopes to one day, with the help of physical therapy, be mobile again without the aid of her walker.
It’s a familiar narrative that drives home all the ways seniors can experience loss — of loved ones, of control over their body, and the opportunity to form new friendships — and how that loss can negatively impact them and their vitality.
Being isolated from her two children, five grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren, who live too far to visit, except on occasion, and losing her mother in February makes her enduring friendship with Brownie a needed source of comfort and joy in her everyday life.
Like Judy, fate intervened to bring the friends together. Friends told her about the CAC Office on Aging’s pet program, Knox PAWS, which stepped up to help her find a puppy and connected her with a shelter when she was interested. Though, she had one stipulation: no boys.
The universe had other plans.
During her visit, a schnauzer caught her eye, but Brownie pushed his way to the front of the pack — again and again. His tenacity eventually won her over. They went on a quick play date and she was immediately smitten.
“I fell in love with him. He wanted to meet me [so bad], and we bonded.”
Five days later, she returned to take him home and start their new life together.
“I didn’t want a boy, but I got a boy because it's what reached out to my heart. And I love him very much.”
Years removed from a divorce, she relies on the friendship of Brownie, her terrier mix, to combat isolation, find companionship and cultivate stronger relationships with other women and their pets in her senior living community, who regularly go on group walks and outings together.
Brownie’s been a trusted and attentive sidekick who consoled her in her darkest moment — the day she lost her mother (and best friend) earlier this year.
Dogs use smell and their ability to read facial and physical cues to sense sadness. That particular day, Brownie was on high alert.
“He knew I was sad. When I sat in my chair, he jumped up on my lap. He knows when something's wrong with me and that made it so much easier for me to get through that [first] night [without my mother].”
Together, they weather life’s ups and downs and complications and hold each other accountable by setting aside time to take their diabetes pills together.
Brenda’s also grateful she can share Brownie with Kenny, her disabled brother — Uncle Kenny to Brownie — who lives in a nearby building.
Their bond has opened up so many doors for Brenda, given her an outlet for her emotional needs, and helped her to age with more dignity among friends — new, old, and furry.
Keeping Seniors Less Alone
Thanks to an innovative partnership between Meals on Wheels America and PetSmart Charities, more than 25,000 seniors have what they need to live independently with their furry companion.
And it’s working.
Research shows that 97% of pet-owning clients believe support from Meals on Wheels makes it possible for them to look after their pets.
Keeping pets and their seniors together is just one of the ways Meals on Wheels is helping our aging neighbors feel less alone.