Eleanor Grunberg, 88, wasn’t looking for love when she moved into Ring House, an independent living facility in Rockville. That all changed when she met fellow resident Julien Sacks.

“I wake up every day being so glad that it’s another good day that I’ll be seeing him,” Grunberg said as she held her partner’s hands at the Fillmore Silver Spring’s Valentine’s dance Sunday night. “He’s just a strong presence in my life.”

“I liked her,” Sacks, 91, said of his first impressions of Grunberg. “We just enjoyed each other’s company. Then it got to be a little more friendly. It got real friendly after a while.”

The pair, together for three years now, decided against marriage because “it’s much more fun and exciting this way,” Grunberg said. “We feel very, very joined together as a couple, and people in the building accept us as a couple.”

“Yeah, we’re a thing,” Sacks chimed in.

Grunberg says the secret to a healthy relationship is “mutual respect and no desire to make a change in the other person’s personality in any way.”

The couple spends every evening together, watching a musical program on Channel 33, talking or just simply sitting.

“It’s a lovely way to consider one’s day, with no pressure, complete enjoyment and this,” Grunberg said, squeezing Sack’s hand, “This is all we care about.”