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He has health, if not wealth

June 16, 2007 12:35 am

BY JIM HALL

Larry Haubner did everything right. He worked hard, lived clean and saved his money. And he has had a long and happy life to show for it.

But now his good health has become a liability. Those who care about him are worried. At 105, he has outlived his savings and may have to move.

"I am genuinely concerned that what is now a very healthy 105-year-old will meet his demise in a nursing home," said Carol Ewing, who holds his power of attorney. "We're all trying to figure a way where that won't happen."

Haubner's uncertain future added a poignancy to his birthday celebration this week at Greenfield Senior Living Center at Fredericksburg, his home in southern Stafford County.

On Wednesday afternoon, Haubner sat at the head of the table in the community room, surrounded by the staff and 35 residents. He wore a birthday hat and yellow polo shirt that the staff had bought for him. He heard little of what was said, because of poor hearing, but he enjoyed the cupcakes and ice cream.

"I don't know why you're making such a big fuss over me," he said. "I was just lucky. It wasn't IQ."

Haubner has lived at the assisted-living center for almost three years. Prior to that, he lived alone in an apartment in Fredericksburg.

For years, he was one of the city's curiosities, the singing bicyclist, a tenor on two wheels.

But in December 2004, two cars were racing and one of them cut him off, he said. He banged against the curb and went sprawling onto the sidewalk.

"I laid on the curb for a while," he said.

He injured his knee and was taken to the emergency room. Later, when a physical therapist visited his apartment, she was alarmed at the way he was living. She called the Fredericksburg Department of Social Services, where a social worker arranged to move him to Greenfield.

Haubner brought almost nothing with him to Greenfield. So the staff collected furniture from their own homes and used their own money to buy him clothes.

Dr. Robert Prasse, a Locust Grove physician, volunteered to monitor his health. Ewing, from Bridges, a senior-care company, agreed to help with his finances.

"It was like that day his past was completely gone," said Connie Miller, Greenfield's director.

But Miller and the others have pieced together some of that past, based on conversations with Haubner and their research.

They believe he was born in Iowa in 1902, when Theodore Roosevelt was president. His father was a railroad worker and his mother was a homemaker. He had two brothers and a sister.

He never married, and his parents, siblings and friends are now dead. He has never had a visitor at Greenfield, Miller said.

He enlisted in the Army at age 40 in New York City. On his enlistment papers, he wrote that he had completed three years of high school and was an airplane electrician. His initial enlistment ended six months after World War II ended.

The staff at Greenfield help Haubner with many of his daily tasks, but they also marvel at his health and strength.

"I believe the body is made to be worked, and I believe nutrition is very important," he said.

Each day, while sitting in a chair in his room, he lifts an 8-pound shot put and stretches an assortment of workout springs. He likes to show off his strength by lifting his walker above his head.

He stands 5-8 and weighs 160, exactly what he weighed when he enlisted during World War II. He lost his hair at age 20, earning the nickname "Curly." He has blue eyes and a voice reminiscent of Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain.

He takes no medicines. His only pills are a vitamin C tablet, some calcium and a multivitamin.

He brought many other vitamins with him to Greenfield, but Prasse threw them away.

"Doc, am I doing OK? Am I doing the right thing?" he asked Prasse.

"I don't know," Prasse joked. "You keep doing this and you're not going to get past 120."

His main health problem appears to be his deafness, which makes conversation difficult. When Martin, the director at Greenfield, wants to talk to him, she shouts into his right ear.

Often he answers with catch phrases like "I'm kind of a health nut" or "The bicycle is excellent exercise because you can go any speed you want."

Overall, his health is excellent, Prasse said. His blood pressure is good, and his sugar level, kidneys, digestion and muscle tone are fine.

"I don't know what's going to kill him," Prasse said.

His monthly bill at Greenfield is $3,370. Ewing has been paying it with his retirement check of $90 a month, apparently from a lumber company in Fredericksburg where he worked, and his Social Security check of $1,116 a month.

Ewing supplements these from a savings account Haubner had when he moved to Greenfield. But the original balance of about $50,000 is nearly gone.

"He's got about a month and a half left," she said.

If no other help is available, Ewing plans to apply for Medicaid for Haubner and move him to a local nursing home. Greenfield is a "private-pay" assisted-living center and does not accept Medicaid clients. Haubner is not aware of what may soon happen.

Haubner doesn't need the skilled care of a nursing home. And he would almost certainly have a roommate, Ewing said. Greenfield tried rooming him with another resident because it would be cheaper, but it made him agitated and unhappy. Miller said they ended the experiment after two weeks and moved him back to a room by himself.

"I am not anti-nursing-home," Ewing said. "But there are certain people that can't make it in a nursing home, emotionally, psychologically. It's a different world."

Haubner is one of those people, Ewing said. She feels that, at 105, he has earned the right to stay where he is.

"Greenfield has been wonderful to him," she said. "His family is Greenfield."