[photo credit: Pasadena Senior Center]
The program, called “Navigating Loss with Grace and Wisdom,” runs through December 2026 in partnership with the Foundation for Senior Services. It offers in-person sessions on the first and third Tuesdays of each month at 3 p.m. and virtual sessions via Zoom on the second and fourth Wednesdays at 11 a.m. The series is open to older adults, families, caregivers and survivors, according to the Pasadena Senior Center’s website.
The Eaton Fire ignited on the evening of January 7, 2025, in Eaton Canyon and burned more than 14,000 acres over 24 days. It killed at least 19 people and destroyed more than 9,000 structures, making it the second most destructive wildfire in California history. Among the buildings lost was the Altadena Senior Center, a community cornerstone for more than 40 years.
“A lot of people are anxious because they don’t know what the future holds for them,” Akila Gibbs, executive director of the Pasadena Senior Center, said in an interview published by the California Community Foundation.
After the fire, the Pasadena Senior Center surveyed 3,000 members and found that mental health support was the most-requested need, according to the Pasadena Star-News. The center launched support groups and, in partnership with the Assistance League of Pasadena, created a Navigator Program to pair displaced seniors with volunteers who guide them through the bureaucratic maze of recovery — from insurance claims to FEMA applications to property tax reassessments.
The center also operates a technology center where staff help seniors — many of whom did not grow up with digital tools — complete the online processes that rebuilding requires, according to the Star-News.
The grief series goes further. Its description on the center’s website states that the program addresses what the rebuilding process cannot: the emotional toll of displacement. The program frames healing as “not about fixing or forgetting” but about “integrating memories in a way that brings peace, meaning, and wholeness,” according to the center’s event listing.
Gibbs has said the center saw a 10% to 15% increase in daily visitors since the fires, with 300 to 400 people now coming through its doors each day, according to the Star-News.
Mary Washington, 85, lost the Altadena home her family purchased in 1976. She described the aftermath in an interview with NBC Los Angeles.
“It was our special place,” Washington said of her home. “It was hard to brush your hair. It was hard to do anything. Then, I started coming here.”
Of the Pasadena Senior Center, she said: “It’s good here. It’s a great place here. They don’t realize how much they mean to a person who’s really down and out.”
Andrea Mark, 73, and her husband Brian, 83, lost their home and relocated to an apartment in Old Town Pasadena. They discovered the senior center a few blocks away and began attending classes and lectures.
“It’s been a really difficult journey to grapple with starting over, especially at our ages and determining what our next chapter looks like,” Andrea Mark said in an interview published by the California Community Foundation. “You know it’s not something you envision doing this late in your life. But we are resilient people.”
Mercedes Matus, whose family home of 38 years was destroyed, described the peer connections she found at the center in an interview with NBC Los Angeles.
“We have a lot of people in our situation who are coming here, so we all sit down and talk,” Matus said. “What we’re doing. What’s going to happen. What we’re not going to allow to happen to us. We’re going to keep on fighting.”
More than 21% of Altadena residents are 65 or older, exceeding the national average of less than 18%, according to the Pasadena Community Foundation, citing U.S. Census data. Many had been rooted in the community for decades before the fire scattered their social networks.
“The older adults in the Altadena/Pasadena area are resilient, but this disaster has a huge impact on their mental health,” Katie Brandon, executive director of Pasadena Village, said in a statement published by the Pasadena Community Foundation.
The Pasadena Senior Center opened in May 1960 and was the first nonprofit senior center in Southern California, according to the organization. It is an independent, donor-supported organization — not city-funded — with more than 2,300 members, according to the Pasadena Weekly. Gibbs, a former award-winning television journalist, has led the organization since 2008, according to the center’s website.
“We’re not going to let people walk through this by themselves,” Gibbs told NBC Los Angeles. “We’re going to be there.”
The “Navigating Loss with Grace and Wisdom” sessions are free. In-person sessions meet at the Pasadena Senior Center, 85 E. Holly St. For more information, contact the Welcome Desk at (626) 795-4331. To reach the Foundation for Senior Services, call (855) 836-0807. Zoom registration links are available at pasadenaseniorcenter.org.
“We feel a profound responsibility to not run people around looking at different places, because they’re already doing that,” Gibbs told the Pasadena Star-News. “We want them to come here, and we want to find the answers for them.”
NAVIGATING LOSS WITH GRACE AND WISDOM Date & Time: Wednesday, March 18, 2026 at 2:00 PM. Venue: Pasadena Senior Center, 85 E. Holly St., Pasadena, CA 91103 Phone Number: (626) 795-4331 Website: https://www.pasadenaseniorcenter.org
