101-Year-Old Meals on Wheels Navigator

CHESAPEAKE, Va. - At 101, Lydia Hart should have people bringing her meals. Instead, she navigates fellow Meals on Wheels partner Betty Spivey through their delivery route once a month.

"I used to carry the meals, but after my legs and feet got the better of me, I still wanted to help," Hart said as Spivey loaded the vehicle with the five meals they were dropping off that day. "It's fun for me and a chance to get out. It gives me something to do."

Her church takes on the responsibility of delivering the meals throughout the city the first Tuesday of each month. Hart has been involved with the program for 28 years.

"I'm not going to retire from this, since I've retired from everything else," Hart said.

Although Hart never learned to drive, she rode "shotgun" and carried the meals into the homes. Now she directs Spivey, 72, on the routes.

"Turn right on Volvo, follow to Greenbrier and then turn left toward Eden Way," she read off the directions.

As Spivey maneuvered her 1991 white Toyota Camry onto Eden Way, Hart glanced around at the apartment complexes.

"I never knew these places were back here," she said.

While Spivey delivered the meals, Hart chatted about her background. She lives next to the house where she was born Lydia Creekmore on May 15, 1908, in what was then Norfolk County. It's the same house off George Washington Highway, where her parents lived, raised their two daughters, and died. Her older sister, Bessie Keay, lived there until she died in 2000 at age 96.

"I miss her so much," Hart said.

The family took in boarders and that was how she met her future husband, Roland Hart, while he was working on Route 17. The couple married in February 1932, although they kept it a secret for a year because married women didn't work outside of the home. At the time, Hart was working in the Norfolk County treasurer's office.

Once the secret was out, apparently the treasurer didn't mind. Hart worked there for 45 years. Her husband died in 1965. They were married 33 years. The couple had no children, but her nieces, Becky Ewers and Catherine Hogan, bring her groceries, take her to appointments and do her banking.

She has credited drinking sweet pickled vinegar as a secret to her longevity, along with upstanding behavior. "I always tried to live like a good lady," she said.

Hart attends Sunday school and worship services at Deep Creek United Methodist Church, which she joined in 1918 and is now the oldest member.

By now, it's been five minutes and Hart is getting anxious.

"What's taking Betty so long?" she worried. "Do you think something happened to her?"

A minute or two later, Spivey returned, explaining she had gone to the wrong floor, where no one answered her knock on the door. A closer look at the instructions revealed the mistake and the meal was delivered.

The next stop was to Wingfield by way of Indian River. Spivey is familiar with this territory and ignored the written directions.

"Do you know where you are?" Hart asked. Spivey did, and soon pulled up to a home on Wingfield that Hart jokingly referred to as Spivey's boyfriend's because the client seems a little "sweet" on her.

Hart watched as Spivey delivered the meal to a caretaker who answered the door. She's glad he has someone watching out for him. She considers her regular clients as friends.

"I miss going in and meeting the people," she said. "We have a good bunch of people with Meals on Wheels and those we deliver the meals."

Omer Street is the last stop on the route. It's the home of a "little old lady," as Hart called the woman probably 20 years her junior. She sometimes waits by the mailbox, but it's too hot this day. Spivey loaded up the last tray and unhooked the gate to a chain-link fence with a "Beware of Dog" sign. When the door opened, a pit bull furiously wagged its tail. Spivey exchanged pleasantries with the client before heading back to her car for the return to the hospital to drop off their equipment. Afterward, they will pick a restaurant where the two will share a meal of their own.

"We did good this time," Spivey said, in reference to a previous trip where they got lost several times.

"Don't say that yet," Hart cracked. "We're not back yet."