Walter Becker shares 99 years of living

By Joan Janzen

Walter Becker from Kindersley celebrated his 99th birthday on Friday, August 26th. Now a resident at Caleb Village, Walter recalls growing up on a farm near Eatonia.

We had a big family,” he explained. “I grew up with five brothers and five sisters. I had a brother and two sisters older than me.”

With all those mouths to feed, one would think the drought, dust and devastation of the Dirty 30s would have been traumatic for any child. However, Walter confidently recalls, “We always had something to eat.”

Nevertheless, those were difficult days. “One year, the grasshoppers were so bad you could hardly see the sky. It’s hard to believe, but it’s true. When anything covers the sun, it gets pretty dark,” he remembers. “My grandpa was originally from Russia, and he said he had never seen anything like those grasshoppers!”

Walter attended school in Eatonia up to Grade 9. “I had two brothers in the forces; my oldest brother was in the Air Force,” he said. “When I was 19, I went into the army for four years. I was stationed at Prince Albert for a couple of years for training. That’s when I got into doing some hockey and refereeing.”

After Prince Albert, Walter was sent to Ontario, where his superiors discovered he could referee. “An officer came to see me one day, and I wondered what I did wrong!” Walter recalls. “He asked if I’d like to referee for the army base and Air Force base teams.”

After coming out of the army, Walter worked with a road repair crew for a few years before working with Pioneer Grain in Eatonia for four years, buying grain. “After that, I returned to the road/construction outfit. We went out to Cold Lake and helped build the air base there,” he explained. The air base was approximately thirty square miles in size. Walter also helped build Kindersley’s high school.

“I met my wife, Audrey Lewis, in 1946. She was from Kindersley, and we married in 1949,” he said. “We celebrated our 70th anniversary, and she passed away a year ago.” They have a son, Rick and a daughter, Wendy, six grandchildren, three step-grandchildren, fifteen great-grandchildren, and six step-great grandchildren.

Around this time in his life, the couple moved to Kindersley, and Walter purchased some farmland located six miles south of Kindersley. Not only did he farm, but he was employed as maintenance personnel for the school division.

He had a keen interest in baseball and fastball, playing on the Eatonia team, continuing to umpire for twenty years, and referee hockey games for ten years. “When I started to ump, they would call me Grandpa. I was only about 40 years old,” he laughed. In subsequent years, Walter got involved with the Legion and was on the church board.

He was always busy, either working or volunteering his time. “Somebody has to do it,” he said. “But if you don’t mind doing it, it’s not really work.”

Walter has had to overcome numerous challenges throughout his 99 years. “As a kid, I had a ruptured appendix,” he said. Since then, he’s recovered from a couple of strokes, two hernias, and had his gallbladder removed.

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit with Walter. Before leaving, I attempted to assist him out of his chair, but he quickly smiled and responded, “No, don’t do that. I’m independent.” That attribute, combined with a positive attitude, may very well be his secret to living a long and happy life.