Nearly eight decades separate Lauren Doda ’12, Moorhead, and Tillie Skare in age but that hasn’t stopped the duo from fostering a friendship through laughter, stories and Rummikub.
Doda, a Spanish major and chemistry minor with dreams of becoming a family practice doctor, found Skare through Concordia’s Adopt-a-Grandparent program her freshman year.
“I grabbed her name out of the basket and it said, ‘Tillie likes to play Rummikub,’” Doda remembers.
Those five words began a weekly routine of conversation and gaming, fostering a relationship that Doda compares to a grandmother-granddaughter.
During a semester abroad in Spain, Doda kept in touch with Skare through Skype and phone calls. Fittingly, she walked by a window featuring Rummikub on her way to class every morning.
“I never stopped thinking about her,” Doda says of Skare, who turned 100 in December.
Three years later, the friendship is still going strong.
“She’s taught me so much,” Doda says. “Not just about the game but about life.”
