Cardinal Experience Course Explores Love in Old Age

Inspired by the 2014 documentary, “The Age of Love,” students in Dr. Marta Rodriguez-Galan’s Cardinal Experience course, Keys to Aging Well, are learning about friendship, intimacy, and significant relationships in old age.

Produced by Steven Loring, the 2014 documentary follows 30 senior citizens from Rochester who participated in the first speed dating event for people ages 70-90. Rodriguez-Galan said the film was the perfect springboard for her course, which brings together undergraduate students and residents from Valley Manor Senior Life Community for intergenerational discussions. Teams of students are paired with a resident, who serves as an “elder consultant” as the students research topics related to aging throughout the semester. The work culminates in a final presentation and intervention in the community.

Loring sat down with Rodriguez-Galan’s students and Valley Manor residents to talk about the film’s exploration of love across the life course.

The idea for the documentary came while watching his mother process the loss of her husband shortly after celebrating their 50th anniversary. “I had no idea how much she was struggling with being alone, after 50 years of being a team,” he told the group, and it made him wonder how the search for love changes as one ages.

Over one summer, Loring followed as 10 speed daters — recently widowed, long-divorced, or never-married — prepared for the big day, endured a rush of encounters, then anxiously received their results. Then, as they headed out on dates, he captured the humorous and bittersweet moments that revealed how worries over physical appearance, romance and rejection, loss and new beginnings change — or don’t change — from first love to the far reaches of life.

The conversation between the students, residents, and Loring touched on those topics, as well as how intimacy and affection can change as one ages – but touch seems to remain a universal desire. They also discussed the concept of loneliness.

“Loneliness is not the same as isolation, it’s more of a feeling like thirst or hunger. It’s our body telling us we must replenish something essential to our health – in this case, human connection,” Loring said.

If loneliness is an epidemic as the Surgeon General described it in 2023, then what do you take for it?, Loring asked the group. What’s the cure?

One resident gestured around the room. “You start talking about it.”

Rodriguez-Galan aims to do just that next month, but with a wider audience. The University community is invited to a free screening of the film at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 23, in Basil 135. Loring will introduce the documentary and take questions from the audience following the screening.

For more information about the film, visit https://www.theageoflovemovie.com/.