Teenage-style romance sparks healthy living in widows
By Kayla Moeller
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YUBA CITY, California (KOVR) — A simple walk down the street led to something neither of them expected. Two widowed neighbors in Yuba City found companionship, better health and a second chance at love. It’s the kind of connection one group is hoping to see spread across the community.
“We have to announce when we’re walking in the house. We’re coming in, everybody decent?” said Lizzie Northrup-Daddow, who lives in Yuba City.
Margaret Strain, 88, and Bob Strain, 85, have lived across the street from each other for a few years now. Both lost their spouses, and neither expected to find love again.
“Well, he has a walker and he walks up and down the road,” Strain said.
Peralta started taking almost daily walks, hoping to catch a glimpse of his neighbor.
“Then one day I said, ‘Are you trying to wear out that road?’ He says, ‘I want to make it smooth,'” Strain said.
She invited him inside for coffee.
“He says, ‘I don’t drink coffee, I drink tea.’ So I said, ‘We’ll have tea.’ And so it just took off from there,” Strain said.
“I knew there was something missing, but I couldn’t find out what it was until I met her,” Peralta said.
Peralta’s health was in bad shape. He had multiple doctor’s visits a week, kidney failure and was staying in bed.
“He wasn’t a candidate for surgery because he wasn’t healthy enough. He meets Miss Margaret, all of his numbers are normal now,” said Northrup-Daddow, Peralta’s daughter.
Northrup-Daddow said it’s been amazing watching her father fall out of loneliness and into love. Their new teenage-like romance has even become the talk of the neighborhood.
“Our other neighbor drove by real slow. Can I ask you a question? Is Bob dating Miss Margaret? And I said what? Why would you say that? [They said] we caught them kissing behind our oleander bush,” said Northrup-Daddow.
“They are the proof in the pudding of how connection can quite literally bring you back to life,” said Alexandria Jones with the Blue Zones Project Yuba-Sutter.
Relationships like Peralta and Strain’s are something the Blue Zones Project in Yuba-Sutter has been working to build into the community for the past few years.
Modeled after regions of the world where people regularly live past 100, engagement lead Alexandria Jones said the key to well-being isn’t just diet and exercise.
“We know from the blue zones research that individuals who are truly lonely can have the same impact on your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day,” said Jones.
These days, Strain and Peralta give each other a reason to get up and get moving every morning. Making trips between their houses and spending quality time with one another.
They found something neither of them expected: a second chance at love. They say it’s a reminder that it’s never too late to find someone who makes every day feel a little brighter.
“Don’t just sit around and do nothing. Have a good time. You might meet somebody, you might not, but just don’t sit in your house and wither away,” Strain said.
Their message is simple: keep showing up, keep moving and keep your heart open, because sometimes, the person who changes your life is living right across the street.
The Blue Zones Project Yuba-Sutter is working toward certification.
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