Feel-Good Friday: A Centenarian With a Generous Heart Gets a Special Celebration on His Birthday

I think one of the shifts in growing older is that you begin to consider your own mortality to a greater degree, and spend more time pondering what really matters. I know I am working on spending less time on the minutiae and more time on the essentials. I also admire those elders who are still rocking it into their latter years and who appear to not really give it much thought. 

This week’s Feel-Good Friday, from Nate Eaton of East Idaho News, celebrates one special centenarian who pours his time, energy, and focus into the people around him at his local senior center. 

Lewis Eaker was born in 1924, when Calvin Coolidge was president.

In 1943, in the midst of World War II, he enlisted in the Navy.

Eaker talked about his time in the military and told anecdotes, but he had something else to say.

“One thing I wanted to say after all about my time in the Navy was some anecdotes. One thing I forgot to mention was that I never got seasick,” Eaker said.

After leaving the military, Lew became an engineer. When he retired from that career, he became a volunteer treasurer for the Senior CItizens Community Center in Idaho Falls. He did this for 20 years until he retired from that in 2021. According to his daughter Karen, Eaker is in good health, still lives on his own, and remains an active part of the center. He enjoys the community, plays games like bridge and bingo, and he also likes Scratchers [scratch-off lottery tickets]. In the video, Eaton said that Eaker wanted the Scratchers so that if he won any money from them, he could give it back to the center. 

In celebration of his 100th birthday, the Senior Citizens Community Center threw Eaker a big party, and he even received a congratulatory letter from Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper. Eaker delighted in the celebration and the love, as he should. Eaker is now among the rare one percent of the population who have reached this milestone.

It is apparent Eaker has a generous heart and loves to give back. According to a Motley Fool survey, it could be the key to his longevity.

• More high-generosity respondents reported being satisfied with life and being happy daily than low-generosity respondents.
• People who are more generous are more likely to believe that life is meaningful, be optimistic, and be proud of who they are.
• Generous respondents reported higher scores on the closeness of their relationships, their number of friends, and the number of friends who would help them out of tough situations.
• High-generosity respondents were happier with every factor relating to their jobs and careers.
• Positive measures of mental and physical health were correlated with being generous.

Eaton asked Eaker, what he thought was the secret to making it to 100? Eaker answered, “I don’t know, keep a positive outlook, I guess.”

I think that’s just the way of someone who simply lives life, fully embraces every opportunity afforded them, and embodies the spirit of carpe diem: seize the day. They really can’t articulate how they have reached that milestone because they’re too focused on doing what is in front of their face. I have a favorite quote at my desk by Jack Kerouac: “Be in love with your life. Every minute of it.” I suspect that Lew Eaker deeply embodies this, and he has been blessed with 52,560,000 minutes to be in love, and hopefully many more.

Check out the East Idaho News video interview with Eaker (starting at ~1:30) below.

WATCH:

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