ROZ AT 85

“It keeps me in the loop.”

That’s how Rosalyn Komins sums up the highlight of her week.

For the past 12 years, Roz has headed over to Roslindale Long Term Chronic Care Hospital, which is owned and managed by Hebrew SeniorLife, to volunteer. Whether she is helping in the development office or sorting residents’ mail, she approaches it with energy and a smile.

“I love helping out. I meet such interesting people. And it keeps me out of mischief.”

 Roz knows quite a bit about working hard. For 58 years, this Brookline native worked as a dental hygienist. She gave up her professional license just five years ago at age 80.

Roz describes her career with pride.

“I worked for some wonderful dentists, including 20 years in New Jersey with one who became dean of the College of Medicine and Dentistry, in Newark.”

 She maintains ties to her profession. She routinely reads dental journals. She has remained in close contact with a group of hygienists. This bond is so important that Roz based her living situation on whether she could host their regular dinner get-togethers.

“I had to have a place with a dining room!”

 This wasn’t an easy requirement to fill. Units in many senior-housing properties are limited to studio or one-bedroom apartments with tiny kitchens and a small space for everything else. Roz has lucked out. In addition to a spacious kitchen, living room and two bedrooms, she has a dining room that can easily accommodate her sizable and well-used table.

There are other alluring features to Roz’s apartment. She is in a renovated school that retained the original large windows, so the space is bright and airy. She is also just a half a block away from a MBTA bus stop. That makes traveling to the Hebrew SeniorLife in Roslindale very manageable.

Roz is eager to discuss her volunteer experience. In addition to the office work, which is an enjoyable change from dental care, she loves the sociability. She has formed wonderful connections with the staff, and enjoys the friendships that have formed among the volunteers.

“Some days, there are six of us who eat together. I call them my Lunch Bunnies.”

Like all who donate their time at SeniorLife, Roz has access to a number of its resources. She finds the in-service educational programs to be stimulating. She is grateful for the open door policy to the facility’s health clinic – which she refers to as our health clinic – so that she can conveniently have her blood pressure checked. That sense of ownership speaks volumes about how Hebrew SeniorLife communicates that volunteers are valued team members.

This is hardly Roz’s first volunteer endeavor. For years, she has participated in an annual Special Olympics sponsored by Boston University, where she joins other dental professionals to check the teeth of the young athletes.

Roz’s family is stretched across the country. Her son lives in California. One of her daughters lives in Madison Wisconsin and a second one lives in upper state New York. She is trying to learn the technology needed to stay in easy contact with her seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren!

Roz’s many friends, including one who entered her life more than 70 years ago, play a huge role in her daily life.

“I’ve made a world for myself filled with people.”

Roz revered her late mother Celia. She was a gutsy woman who was an attorney years before it was considered an acceptable female profession. She worked as a comptroller and office manager in the shoe fabric industry until she was 82. When she retired, she did legal and accounting work from home.

“My mother taught me to have a voice.”

 Speaking up was not the only lifelong lesson that she imparted.

“My mother loved to share this advice: ‘Don’t be in the airport when your ship comes in.’”

 This statement makes Roz laugh.

“I say it all the time. Usually, people don’t know what I’m talking about!”

 Roz always knew exactly what her mother was saying, and she heeded her advice.

As she talks animatedly about all that she accomplished in the past and everything that makes life rewarding today, Roz is satisfied that, in fact, she has been at the right place at the right time!