Walter Harubin, who turned 105 on February 8, is sitting in his bright living room with large, exposed wood beams in Whately, MA—a living room he built. “I built this house, 85% of it myself, it took me three and a half years when I was only 40 years old . . . Every minute, every hour I had, I was here, working,” he says.
The work paid off, and now, 65 years later, Walter is able to stay in the home he built, in part because of support from LifePath’s Meals on Wheels program, which serves around 500 people a day with about 600 meals delivered via 32 routes to older people who may not be able to prepare a healthy meal for themselves. Everyone receives a hot, noontime lunch, and State Home Care consumers who receive other services from LifePath can also receive a chilled, prepared supper meal. The meals are designed by registered dietitians to be nutritionally balanced and healthy. There are approximately 20 staff members and 60 volunteers who make this happen each day.
In addition, the volunteer delivery drivers provide a daily wellness check, and have helped people in distress many times. The social interaction between delivery drivers and meal recipients is another crucial benefit to the program.
For three days each week, Walter’s delivery drivers are Sue and Tom Dillon, who have been delivering meals together for two and a half years, and have joined Walter for his interview. On this day, they had already delivered 26 meals, leaving the house at 9 AM and getting back around 1 PM. Delivering the meals together works well for them—if one has an appointment on a given day, the other is still there to handle the route.
When Sue and Tom first met Walter on their route, he was 103. Tom remembers, “He was still picking blueberries, mowing, and snow blowing.”
“I was still in my prime then,” jokes Walter, who adds, “They’re terrific, some of my best people. I can depend on Tom and Sue if I need them.”
Walter, who renewed his driver’s license at 104 and reports “I was told I passed with flying colors,” shows me a photo of his late wife and remarks, “Look at how beautiful she is! She was born ‘Alexandra’ but didn’t like her name so she changed it to ‘Alexandria’—she did what she wanted.”
Walter received his diploma from Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School in Northampton, MA and worked as a mechanic in a local garage before joining the Navy Seabees, a specialized Naval Construction Force responsible for building, maintaining, and defending critical infrastructure worldwide, ranging from airfields to base facilities. With a motto of “We Build, We Fight,” the Seabees serve as a self-contained, versatile workforce, often working in combat zones. Walter says, “I was in one of the first Seabee outfits that was incorporated by President Roosevelt. And I was one of the 23rd Battalion [during World War II]. I got pictures of this. And so I was in the Pacific Theater for three years.” Walter describes climbing to the top of a mountain and happening to see a Japanese sub rise from the water, “I got about four or five guys to climb the mountain right to the top, well, halfway up, the other guys all quit, except me. So I sat down. I’m looking out into the sea. Up comes the sub. Oh, my goodness, outside the harbor…you know, I’m watching it. They could have killed me by lobbing a shell at me if they wanted to, but they were there to see what was in the harbor.” Walter remembers the two boats that went to intercept the submarine, and that the submarine “took off.”
Walter was discharged in 1945 and travelled back home to live with his mother and father in Hatfield, Massachusetts. Remembering how he met Alexandria, he said, “I saw this beautiful woman going to church all the time. So that’s one of the reasons why I went to church every Sunday. She worked in Northampton in a highfalutin clothing store, and she could always wear what she wanted, and I’d be sitting there waiting for her to come down the aisle.” They were married in 1947 and Walter started his own garage with his parents and brother, Harubin’s Service Station, in North Hatfield.
“I had a big garage, it’s still there now, but it’s run by some other outfit. I ran it for nine years,” says Walter. He remembers having to give it up to help his dad farm, alongside his wife. “My father was a farmer, so he raised everything from cucumbers to carrots to tobacco, potatoes, whatever,” says Walter, who recalls bringing the tobacco in to tie it.
Walter and Alexandria raised two children, a boy and a girl. Walter built their house in Whately and worked at a plant that made vinyl footwear for over 20 years, recalling, “I went from maintenance man to plant engineer.” Later he worked as an airplane parts inspector, as well, and after retirement he says, “I got sick of hanging around,” so he worked for Historic Deerfield in security and maintenance, applying for the job after Alexandria told him he’d “never get it as he was too old.”
Walter is a lifelong, avid hunter and recalls his hunting trips to Vermont, Colorado, and Pennsylvania fondly. More recently he met a friend at Veteran’s Affairs that took him hunting. He is grateful for his friends, his home health aide through Veteran’s Affairs who helps him twice a week, and Tom and Sue and the food they bring him through LifePath’s Meals on Wheels program. He says, “Every day that I wake up, I check my pulse, and if it’s strong, I guess I’ll live another day. I’m really happy—I’m shooting for 110 or 115.”
Sue responds, “Just keep eating those nutritious meals.”
If you would like to volunteer for the Meals on Wheels program, please call LifePath at 413-773-5555.
