Thelma Swana’s advice for a good life is simple: Decide what you want to be and don’t worry about love — not quite yet.
“There are so many options for girls today,” said Swana, who demurred with a smile when asked her age: “It’s a secret.”
She and other residents of the Brightview assisted living facility in Fairfax County, Virginia, dispensed bits of wisdom and sass on a recent Sunday as Reston-area high school students — some 80 years their junior — treated them to manicures.
The afternoon of beauty came courtesy of the GlamourGals of South Lakes High School, one of hundreds of chapters nationwide whose members aim to combat social isolation, foster empathy and build communication skills. For them, doing makeup, nails and crafts is a means to an end.
“Nail painting isn’t what I’m mainly interested in,” said Zahra Nikzad, 16, chapter president. “It’s the conversation. I want to understand their experience. I want to talk to them and listen to what they have to say. That’s what we’re here for.”
She stumbled on the idea for the club while missing her grandmother, who lives in their native Afghanistan. They talk by phone and FaceTime.
“If someone were doing this for my grandma,” Nikzad said, “that would be a comfort. I would love to be that person for others.”
On the Gals’ latest visit to Brightview, Nikzad arranged boxes of polish in shades of pink, red and blue, as well as emery board files — “nothing sharp,” she said — and crafts for after the nails dry, including DIY snow globes and paintable pumpkins.
The teens took out their phones rarely to snap photos, but otherwise, their attention was undivided, as they soaked up advice and adoring gazes of residents with grandchildren their ages.
The club has about 30 members, who are almost all girls. But Brightview can accommodate only 12 students at a time so they must register through a QR code, and spots fill up quickly.
Mimosa Lim, 15, a sophomore, said she listened to stories of children long grown, as she painted the nails of a woman in an upstairs area of the facility for residents with dementia and significant memory loss.
“They’re getting to that time when they go back in time,” Lim said. Her father told her he notices the same tendency in his parents.
Downstairs in a common area, Jean Ellis, 97, and Shirley Workman, 85, treated the visit like a party. Wearing Christmas tree earrings and jingle bells around her wrist, Ellis admired the work of Cassandra De La Cruz, 16, a junior.
“Oh this will be nice for Christmas,” Workman said as she looked at the pale pink nail polish color Romper Room and admired Ellis’s neutral hue, The Snuggle is Real, applied by Amanda Halac, 16, also a junior.
“I like yours better than mine,” Workman told Ellis. “Well, we’re not going to trade!” Ellis joked back.
“It’s nice just to be with young people,” said Ellis, who told De La Cruz about her five children. The North Carolina native said she met her husband while he was studying to become a lawyer. They were married for 68 years.
After adopting several children, she said, one day she felt ill. “I thought I had a virus, but it was an 8-pound boy,” Ellis said, delivering the punch line with a smile. “Just love one another and be there for one another. And it all works out,” she said, tearing up.
“We’ll let this coat dry and do a topcoat,” Halac said, breaking the tension.
Next, Ellis and Workman joined a table of women, each with a rolling walker parked behind her, to play the card game Kings in the Corner, which is typically how they pass the days.
Many of the residents moved to Brightview Great Falls Assisted Living and Memory Care when they could no longer safely live at home and grown children wanted them close by.
“We bring men with us, but they go off and leave us and go to heaven,” one said.
“Hopefully,” another quipped.
Ellis kept the banter going. “We’re card sharks,” she began, before being interrupted by a friend who patted the table to get her attention. Her turn was up.
At another table, Sophia Jones, 17, a senior, turned over Swana’s age-marked hand and painted her nails a pale lavender. They talked about a shared preference for history over math in school.
“They are fabulous,” Swana said. “It’s wonderful. I want to hug you. Can I give you a hug?”
“I’m happy to help,” Jones said as the pair embraced.
“I better not say anymore because I’ll start crying. You took very good care of me.”
Another student at the table, Iris Yi, 16, explained the popularity of the session, their third at this facility.
“You learn a lot from them because they’ve lived so much longer than you have,” Yi said.
A social worker in her home country of Guatemala, Swana said she would climb volcanoes as a girl.
“We want to climb a volcano!” Jones and Yi said in unison. All were delighted by the prospect of adventure.
Well, almost all. As the students arrived, one resident spoke up:
“I thought we were playing bingo today.”
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