Kelowna boy cuts hair and donates to Wigs for Kids B.C.
It was a bad weather day that prompted Gloria-Jean Seymour to try bring a little light into her life.
Feeling blue on another grey winter’s morning, the 71year-old Kelowna woman decided to reach out — to strangers.
“I don’t have any family or children,” Seymour said Sunday. “And on this one gloomy day in early February I was sort of feeling, I don't want to say lonely, but like I just needed some friends.”
So she put an ad in a newspaper inviting other single seniors, 55 and up, to come join her for dinner at a restaurant, for a gathering she called ‘Dine and Chat.’
Thirteen people showed up. There were more the next week, and 30 the week after that.
Seymour stresses the weekly gathering is not any kind of dating service, and there are no fees to join. It’s just an opportunity to meet new people, and judging from the response, there’s a definite need for it.
“It's just a way to put a smile on people’s faces,” Seymour said. “I think there’s a lot of older, maybe isolated folks out there who want to get out more and do more socializing.”
The growing group meets once a week at whatever restaurant can accommodate them. Some first-timers are shy, but most quickly join the conversation and enjoy the fellowship, says Seymour, a retired hairdresser and sales rep.
The youngest regular Dine and Chat attender is 55, the oldest 100.
Some Dine and Chat participants have struck up friendships outside the weekly gathering, and Seymour's having the whole group over in new few weeks for her 72nd birthday in the clubhouse of her retirement complex. Also on the agenda, as the weather warms up, are potlucks and picnics in parks.
Asked how long she intends to convene the convivial gatherings, Seymour said: “Forever. Why not?”