BOSTON – Only the banging of a drum nearby punctuates the squeak and screech of sneakers and the slap of a basketball hitting the floor in the Roslindale Community Center at midday on a recent Thursday as a group of older men battle for the ball and go for the hoop.
"Once you got it ingrained, its kind of hard to stop," said Richard Kee, an 83-year-old player from Newton. "Basketball is the key to my life."
BOSTON – During the six months Robert Burke spent in a Brookline nursing home dying from cancer, Whitney Taylor regularly visited with her dog Barrington, a seven-pound Pomapoo, to brighten his days just a little and provide support.
But it wasn't like she was an old friend. Taylor was matched to Burke through her volunteer work with PetPals, a branch of FriendshipWorks, a Boston-based nonprofit organization. The program aims to help ease loneliness and isolation among people in nursing homes and long-term care facilities.
