PITTSBORO — What is the secret of life?
Mr. Laroy Stevenson, or “Mr. Steve” as he likes to be called, may have the answers.
“The grace of God,” he said. “I believe in a Mediterranean diet, and walk a mile a day. In my apartment, I had a treadmill, so I would walk a mile or two every day.”
He also lifts an eight-pound dumbbell in arm curls, 700 at a time, without stopping.
The exercise and nutritional diet have made a substantial difference in his life, Mr. Steve said, and he ought to know.
He hits the century mark this week, turning 100 years old on January 24.
How has he done it?
“I believe in physical exercise, I recommend fruit and vegetables,” Stevenson said. “And I eat three handfuls of nuts a day; peanuts, almonds and walnuts.”
Stevenson has been keeping up with nutrition reports from Duke University, and uses this information to stay healthy. The nutritional value of these foods, combined with exercise and staying active, has made a profound impact on Stevenson’s life. He says that the walnuts are second from the top on the list of nutritional foods, just behind sweet potatoes.
“I know it has made a big difference in my life,” he said. “I have almost no aches and pains. I’m the second oldest at Pittsboro Christian Village, but he’s [the oldest person] in much worse shape.”
He advocates the use of the herb turmeric because of the way it helped him deal with past health issues, and recommends not eating fast foods.
For Stevenson, it all started in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, where he was born on Jan. 24., 1920. After graduating from high school in 1937, he joined the Army Air Corps, the forerunner of the Air Force, on Sept. 19, 1940.
The draft started two weeks later.
After attending aircraft mechanics school and graduation, Stevenson was kept on as an instructor. Eventually, he moved to Amarillo, Texas, and became maintenance chief on a B-17 airplane, and after additional training in Seattle, the B-29.
Stevenson is glad that he wound up in Amarillo during the war; that’s where he met his wife.
The wife of one of the instructors under him there was pregnant, and her sister had come to help her out.
“I told the husband, if she’s as pretty as your wife, I’d like to meet her,” Stevenson said.
They married in 1943.
“I was married to the most wonderful woman in the world,” he said. “We were married for 65 years.”
Vera Stevenson died on Jan. 11, 2009.
They had an adopted daughter, Wendy, who now lives in Lynchburg, Virginia.
After being discharged from the Air Force in Texas in 1945, the couple stayed in Texas for another year, where Stevenson worked as a mechanic in a garage. The two then moved back to Wisconsin, where Stevenson took a job as a Fuller Brush salesman, a job he held knocking on doors in various locales, for 40 years.
“I would still be doing that if I wasn’t blind,” he said.
Vera had been a hairdresser, but when she left that profession, she joined him for a while as a salesperson. Not long after she started, she slipped on wet railroad ties on a house call, and injured her back. That was the end of that career for her.
Stevenson has a wealth of stories about being a door-to-door salesman. One time, when on his first stop in Ohio, he was almost baptized. A lady with a bucket of water was leaning out of the second story of a house. As he rang the bell, she almost spilled it on him. At the very next stop, the lady of the house wouldn’t come to the door as he rang it several times. She finally yelled at him to stop or he’d be in trouble.
“Her daughter had just learned to ring the bell, and she thought I was her daughter,” Stevenson said.
Another time, he was almost asked to help deliver twin babies.
Stevenson’s strong Christian faith was also a special part of his daily sales efforts. In his 40 years of knocking on doors, he estimates that he gave away about 60,000 gospel tracts, more than 2,000 per year. Part of his Christian witness now is to take a talking book player from the library to the care home at the Village to share stories. He’s especially fond of the “Chicken Soup” series of books, such as “Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul” and “Chicken Soup for the Pet Lovers Soul.”
Another effort to bring care to his fellow man is to take a dog — he’s had three — to the Village care home to love on the residents.
“I would bring them to the care home, the administrator said I could bring them anytime,” he said. “It’s such good medicine for those that live there. The dogs love visiting, and getting up on laps.”
The soon-to-be-centenarian has lived at the Pittsboro Christian Village for 18 years, and when the couple arrived in 2002, he was village gardener.
“I grew tomatoes for everyone,” he said. “I had 22 plants, and grew 1,700 tomatoes.”
He used a caster wagon to share the vegetables with everyone at the Village.
Suzie Lewis was a volunteer at one time at the home, but eventually she and her family of six children and husband “adopted a grandfather” in Mr. Steve.
“At 90, he got down on floor and showed my kids how to play marbles,” Lewis said. “He loved telling stories about his time with Fuller Brush, and about his time in Amarillo. There was one time he and his wife Vera were driving through the Amarillo area and saw a strange mirage on the road ahead of them. They drove up to see the mirage was thousands of rattlesnakes on the roadway.”
Mr. Steve’s happy personality infuses his personal joy with the people around him. Julie Stiefel in Dining Services at the Village said that Mr. Steve has “a servant’s heart. He’s an old school gentleman and just an incredible person.”
His strength is another key point that she noticed.
“He can outwalk anyone here, even with a walker,” she said. “He’s strong, as much as a 100 year old man can be. I’ve known him for five years altogether including here and another place. Well into his 90s he would shop for his own groceries, and smile for all. He’s always happy.”
“I feel young,” Stevenson said. “No aches or pains, and I can walk faster than anyone else here.”
With a century’s worth of history behind him, he can look back to see his first car, which had curtains, rather than windows, and he’s constantly amazed at the changes in technology.
“I told my smart phone to call ‘Mr. Steve’ and it called him while I was in his room,” Lewis said. “It amazed him.”
Stevenson’s vision sees the Lord returning soon, but he was less certain about man reaching for the stars.
His advice for future generations is a blend of his faith in God and faith in healthy living. He said we should pray for the government, for the president and vice president, and for godly men to seek the Lord’s will in the work that they are doing, to seek it and do it, and that we need godly men in authority and in the education system. He also recommends brisk walking everyday, and said that 30 or 40 minutes a day can add up to 10 more years to live, and a better quality of life.
“I’m amazed at him,” Lewis said. “I love the way he loves the Lord , and he is looking of the second coming, I love that. He is kind to everyone, gets stories for the blind, he’s a huge encourager to others.”
With Stevenson’s 100th on Jan. 24, Lewis is throwing a party at the home for the big day.
“I want to put 100 candles on a cake, I have never done that,” she said.
Julie Stiefel said “I want to be just like him when I’m 100.”