More than 50 former high school classmates live in same senior community decades later
At a senior living community in Austin, Texas, dozens of former classmates are proving that friendships built in childhood can last a lifetime.
More than 50 graduates of Austin High School now live at Westminster, which offers independent living, assisted living, memory support, skilled nursing and rehabilitation services on one campus, according to its website.
Decades after graduation, many have found themselves neighbors once again.
Some have known each other since elementary school, while others reconnected years later after moving into the community.
For Russ Butler, 89, and Carlene Jenkins, 89, the friendship dates back roughly 80 years.
"We're back with old friends," Butler told ABC News. "They're not really strangers."
Many of the residents gather every Tuesday evening as part of a group they call "ROOL," short for "Rest of Our Lives."
They meet for dinner, games and social activities, while also organizing an annual Austin High School reunion that has become one of Westminster’s most beloved traditions.
The idea for the reunion came from resident Cynthia Leach, 77, who graduated from Austin High School in 1966.
"From our class point, we started with 10-year reunions," Leach said. "Here at Westminster, I came up with the idea overnight one time, and we have annual reunions here in March of each year [and] we just had our fourth reunion."
The event brings together alumni spanning more than two decades of graduating classes. Residents arrive dressed in the school's maroon and white colors, bringing yearbooks, photographs and other memorabilia from their school days.
"We have over 50 people on our list for our reunion here of folks that graduate from Austin High," Leach said. "That's about a tenth of the population of the independent living folks here."
For Westminster Senior Director of Community Life Services Ruth Sunil, who has worked at the community for 16 years, the reunion is about much more than nostalgia.
"We actually started this in 2023," Sunil told ABC News. "At Westminster we’re all finding opportunities to foster friendships and relationships because the social aspect is so important, you know, for their well-being and mental health."
Sunil said that some residents look forward to the reunion all year.
"Oh, you should just see them together," she shared. "They sing their school song, they sing that fight song. They all come dressed in maroon and white. And kind of, I think, school reunions bring out the child in you."
The friendships were forged in a very different Austin than the booming city known today.
"Austin was very small kind of when we were in high school," Butler recalled.
Many of the graduates grew up in the same neighborhoods, attended the same school and remained connected through the years. Others lost touch while raising families and building careers before reconnecting later in life.
When asked what she sees when she looks at her friends today, Jenkins didn't hesitate to explain what they mean to her.
"They're old friends, reliable friends that you have loved forever," she said. "You know, they're still here."
For Mike Roche, 91, memories of Austin High School still center on the friendships.
"Everywhere you turned was, you know, a favorite person or a recent incident or a fun thing," Roche said. "It's just, lots going on, a lot of fun."
Sunil believes those connections play an important role in residents’ lives today.
"I think it plays a huge role in their well-being," she explained. "It's just a friendship by themselves, you know, it helps you with your mental health, it helps people, something to look forward to every day because they play games with them, have dinners with them, go out and to have that in this stage of their lives, I think it is very important."
The tradition became especially meaningful after the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I think especially after the pandemic, I think this was one of the best things that happened then because, you know, we were isolated and all that and so then we came back together to start this," Sunil said.
Asked what advice they would give younger generations about building lifelong friendships, the group said it comes down to staying connected and making time for one another.
"The first thing might be to put down the phones and computers and visit personally with people and listen to them and have a good time," Leach said. "Develop real connections."
Jenkins echoed that sentiment, adding that lasting friendships don't always require constant face-to-face interaction.
"Just stay in contact with them," she said. "And that's so meaningful."
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