High school seniors give Valentine to senior residents

Seniors at Irvington High School in Fremont held a Valentine’s Day dance for senior residents at Watermark at Almaden in San Jose on Feb. 14.

The Valentine’s Day Senior Ball brought the two generations together to enjoy music, dancing and live performances.

The event was created through a student-led effort to address senior loneliness and grew out of regular volunteer visits between students and residents. Student organizer Josephine Sun said her involvement was inspired by seeing her own grandparents live far away and experience isolation, motivating her to work with local seniors to build meaningful connections.

Seniors from both age groups danced to live music by Jerry Logan and Loganville. Toward the end of the band’s set, students and residents formed a dance circle during what was scheduled to be the final song. The energy in the room was strong enough that the band played an encore.

Throughout the afternoon, music filled the auditorium as guests moved between conversations at their tables and dancing alongside one another. At one point, a group of students gathered around resident Pui Tsang, who shared stories from his background in medicine and took students’ questions.

In addition to bringing together two generations, the senior ball also created space for longtime couples to celebrate Valentine’s Day together.

Among them were Nancy and James Richard “Dick” Lowry, who have been married for 60 years. The couple met in 1965 at the Presidio of San Francisco during the Vietnam era, when Dick was a young Army officer and Nancy worked as a civilian secretary across the hall. What began with coffee breaks and a ride home turned into a first date at the Fairmont Hotel, where they spent the evening dancing.

They married in a military ceremony in January 1966 and went on to raise three children while building careers in education across the United States before eventually returning to California.

While mobility and hearing challenges meant they were enjoying the celebration from their seats rather than the dance circle, the Lowrys sat side by side at the event, serving as a quiet reminder of enduring love, stories that span generations and the importance of creating spaces where those stories can continue to be shared.