SEX, LOVE AND NURSING HOMES

A good relationship can be the best tonic for whatever is ailing. Grace Bosse, 83, was deeply depressed when she entered a California nursing home a year ago. Now she is "going steady" with Henry Stull, 72, and her spirits have soared. It has certainly made her the envy of other women at the home, since Stull was quite a catch. "He's a hot commodity in this facility," says Noelle Ramsey-Chaney, director of social work at Country Hills Health Care Center in El Cajon, California. "A lot of the ladies were trying to court Henry because he's tall, he has good teeth and he has hair. And he can dance." In general, men are prized on the social circuit; about seven of every 10 nursing-home residents are women. Stull was smitten with Bosse from the start. "I looked across the room and said, 'I gotta meet her--she's cute'." Every night, he goes to her room for a goodnight kiss. But she hasn't invited him to stay. "Not unless we're married," she says.

The DePippas tied the knot in the dining room at the nursing home. There were 52 guests. Rosemary's son walked her down the aisle. William's son was best man. The DJ played Barbra Streisand's "I Dreamed of You," and the couple shuffled through their first dance before Rosemary returned to her walker. For their "honeymoon," they went to Atlantic City, New Jersey, for a nursing-home conference. The home administrator and a couple of nurses went along, too--staying in nearby hotel rooms. "He loves being married," says Rosemary.

Before long, the baby-boom generation--some of the '60s crowd is now in its 60s--will begin packing these facilities. When the old rock and rollers show up with their walkers--trendsetters to the end--the nursing homes might well become the hottest singles scene going.

© 2004