The art of connection
TCU students bridge generations through
"Crafts and Conversation"
It’s the kind of Sunday that feels suspended between weekend and weekday.
Trinity Terrace, a senior living retirement community, looms over the Trinity River. Located on the west side of the Chisholm Trail, it's easily mistaken for an office building.
But it doesn't have the institutional atmosphere that can be associated with senior facilities. When the glass doors slide open, there's a polite greeting but no clipboard sign-in and no faint scent of disinfectant.
Just off the entrance, there's a ballroom overlooking the river that's dappled in sunlight.
The room hummed.
There's a chorus from the taps of women pressing flowers onto cardstock. It kept time with the rhythms from the strings of a cello being bowed in the corner.
Pink lemonade sweat in plastic pitchers. Chocolate chip cookies disappeared in twos. In the center of it all, a table of women erupted into laughter.
"Welcome," said Carol Stanford, the head of the Trinity Terrace Foundation and a TCU Silver Frog. Her smile landed somewhere between host and old friend. "We're so happy you could make it today."
A woman in a bright orange sweatshirt and matching sandals glided in. TCU senior Eric Shepherd pulled out a chair next to him for her to sit in.
"Carol, you just look so festive," someone called out. A sea of compliments followed.
She noded a humble gesture in gratitude
"Thank you," she said sheepishly, hiding her flushed face. "My floor is decorating for fall today, and I figured I’d be festive too."
Once a month, TCU students gather with Trinity Terrace residents for Crafts and Conversations. The student-led initiative uses creativity as a bridge between generations.
The crafts are simple: pressed flowers, painting tote bags and yarn octopi, but the purpose runs deeper. It’s meant to cultivate community between Fort Worth seniors and college students who might not cross paths otherwise.
It began over Zoom in 2020, amid the pandemic, in an effort to combat loneliness and monotonous lifestyles.
Annemarie Thompson leads a 2021 Crafts and Conversations session on Zoom. (Photo courtesy of Texas Christian University’s College of Science and Engineering)
Annemarie Thompson leads a 2021 Crafts and Conversations session on Zoom. (Photo courtesy of Texas Christian University’s College of Science and Engineering)
The idea struck Annemarie Thompson, then a TCU student, while watching her grandfather struggle with loneliness through his final years in a veteran's retirement home.
Her time at TCU had taught her that residents in retirement homes weren’t the only ones struggling. Many college-aged students also combat loneliness, especially during the pandemic, Thompson said.
She's graduated and moved to San Antonio to pursue a career in medicine, but her idea not only survived, it grew.
This is the fifth year that retirees and students have gathered.
The initiative has been passed on.
“The one thing that I want students to graduate from TCU with is the ability to connect with people in different ways,” said Bryan Partika, TCU’s coordinator for leadership and experiential learning. “Recurring service opportunities are the perfect way to build this connection.”
Partika oversees initiatives like the Alternative Break program, LEAPS and TCU’s annual Day of Service, which saw a record 1,100 participants this year.
He’s watched introverted students bloom into confident leaders and witnessed young adults find their calling in community work.
Volunteering fosters well-rounded, passionate and purposeful citizens, Partika said.
Students slowly trickle into the ballroom, dressed in lazy-Sunday attire and greeted by old friends.
Conversations pick up instantly, forming a steady current as students and residents fall into a rhythm that feels practiced, although no one has rehearsed it.
Grady O'Gara, a TCU senior double-majoring in criminal justice and music performance, sits off to the side of the table, preparing his cello with calm precision. He is in charge of coordinating the musical portion of each month's event.
This year, he has taken on most of the performing himself, often practicing his class repertoire in front of the residents.
“I love playing here because they’re a really friendly audience,” O’Gara said. “They don’t judge when I mess up.”
Crafts and Conversations always opens with a craft laid out on a long table.
Starting this way helps students and residents talk, making conversation a little more natural, O'Gara said.
Once the crafting comes to an end, the musical performance begins.
Grady O’Gara, a TCU senior double-majoring in criminal justice and music performance, plays with the TCU Symphony Orchestra, the Cello Ensemble and the Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra. (TCU360/Katelyn Purdom)
Grady O’Gara, a TCU senior double-majoring in criminal justice and music performance, plays with the TCU Symphony Orchestra, the Cello Ensemble and the Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra. (TCU360/Katelyn Purdom)
Many Trinity Terrace residents reported attending Crafts and Conversations for more than a year. (TCU360/Katelyn Purdom)
Many Trinity Terrace residents reported attending Crafts and Conversations for more than a year. (TCU360/Katelyn Purdom)
For many, the music is their favorite part of the afternoon.
“I remember two years ago when the students surprised us with a Dvořák concert,” Stanford said, her eyes welling. “That’s probably my favorite memory since I started coming five years ago.”
She wiped away a tear from the corner of her eye, offering a small, embarrassed smile, despite no one in the room seeming to mind her emotion.
O'Gara's bow floats just above the strings of his cello, held in a wave of stillness in anticipation of its inevitable fall. Everyone quiets.
Then suddenly, the bow drops, sinking into the first note.
The once-still air sings.
Some watch, and others listen while crafting or conversing.
The low percussion of hammering is layered underneath the smooth sounds of the cello.
Resident Willene Corder starts to tap her wooden hammer in chorus with O'Gara's art.
"This is why I never got a scholarship to play music," Corder said with a chuckle.
Music was always a focal point for Crafts and Conversation's founder, Thompson.
"My grandfather battled dementia," she said. "Yet, every time I visited him, I knew that we could always connect through music that would surface old memories."
Today, music remains a main part of the initiative in honor of her grandfather.
And just as quickly as it started, it ends. The tools are gathered, the cello is packed away and the table is broken down. Yet the conversations, the laughter and shared stories linger long after the room empties.
(Image courtesy of TCU Crafts and Conversations via Instagram)
(Image courtesy of TCU Crafts and Conversations via Instagram)
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