BROCKPORT, N.Y. — Assisted living was not where Rosemary Lazarus wanted to be.

But on her first day in her new home, Brookdale in Brockport, someone from her past returned to her life.

"Of all the places, we sat down at our assigned dinner places and there she was. I realized I recognized her," said Lazarus.

Rosemary had sat down across from a Nazareth Academy schoolmate. Jean Liu Feuerstein looked familiar. And Rosemary to her.

“As soon as she sat down, I couldn't place her, but I knew she looked familiar,” Feuerstein said.

Then it came to Rosemary: she had been in Jean's wedding. 

Days later, Rosemary's daughter found in one of her mother's scrapbooks pictures from Jean's wedding; her mother, the maid of honor.

"She threw my shower. We were very close," Feuerstein said.

The two had not only gone to Nazareth Academy together, they worked together as secretaries at Kodak in the ‘50s. Jean's family moved to Michigan for a short time.

"I was not excited to come here in the start, but meeting Jean makes it better. It's good to have someone to talk with," said Rosemary, who said the two often monopolize conversation at daily meals in the dining room at Brookdale in Brockport.

"We have a lot to catch up on," said Jean.

Together, they raised a combined 14 children. They also learned that they had lived on opposite sides of Greece together for more than 50 years after Jean and her family moved back to the area.

Their reunion has made living on their own in assisted living something they both believe they can accomplish, with the other.

"She's my savior," said Jean.