The Woohoo! Report

Larry “Curly” Haubner is 107 years old, and shows no signs of slowing down. So when he outlived his savings, friends and strangers alike stepped in to make sure he’d be able to spend the rest of his life in comfort at his assisted living facility.

By Kathryn Hawkins

Larry “Curly” Haubner is 107 years old, and shows no signs of slowing down. Although he’s been at an assisted living facility for five years, he doesn’t take any medication, and he still exercises every day, using a homemade 20-kilogram weight ball.

“He’s just amazing,” Carmen Cata, activity and volunteer coordinator at his facility told the Free-Lance Star. “He’s the spark for this building.”

While Haubner’s in fantastic shape, his bank account, unfortunately, is not. Haubner’s facility, Greenfield, in Fredericksburg, Virginia, costs $3,500 a month. For several years, Haubner paid for that out of his savings and social security benefits, but he soon ran out of money, and he has no surviving relatives to make the payment.

So, two years ago, friends and supporters got together to raise money so that Haubner could spend the rest of his life in Greenfield, which had become a home to him. Through a passionate fundraising effort, the group managed to raise $56,000 to pay Haubner’s rent.

“I was sure that was going to be sufficient,” Carol Ewing of Bridges Senior Care Solutions, who holds power of attorney for Haubner, told the Washington Post.

But to everyone’s surprise, Haubner just kept on going—and now he’s outlived his savings yet again. If he wasn’t able to pay the facility’s bills, he would be forced to apply for Medicaid and move to a state-run nursing home.

No one wanted to see Haubner leave the Greenfield community. So, once again, friends and supporters launched a campaign to raise money to pay Haubner’s rent, complete with a website to collect donations, savelarry.org.

Everyone who’d met Haubner was happy to pitch in with what they could afford to keep the always-smiling old man where he was, and, after hearing his story, thousands of strangers were touched enough to make donations to his cause. Now, Haubner’s fund has over $65,000—enough money to see him through several more years at Greenfield. If Haubner outives that, too, he may end up becoming the world’s oldest man. In that case, hopefully the Guinness Records company will chip in to cover his bills!

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DENVER — Chemotherapy treatments are no fun, but patients here at the Kaiser Permanente Oncology Department in Denver have reason to look forward to their visits.

On the fourth Thursday of every month everyone here — patients, family, and staff — gets a free, homemade lunch.

“They love it and I love it. I bring sandwiches and Texas sheet cake, and chips. We have the same menu every month, but everybody likes it,” said Elise McGew-Hall.

Elise started the lunch when her husband was a patient at Kaiser. Although he lost his battle to cancer, 15 years later, Elise is still here.

“I told them they can’t get rid of me,” Elise said.

And no one wants her to stop providing lunch.

Some patients arrange their schedules so they could be around for Elise visits.

“You can just see them light up the moment she shows up. ‘Oh, sandwich day!’ And they get excited,” said Paula Hoshaw, the facility’s care coordinator.

Elise insists it’s just a small gesture, but patients and staff at Kaiser Permanente say Elise’s 15 years of kindness has been some of the best medicine they’ve received.

Check out the video here.

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