Life Lesson's and Story , From The World's Oldest Man. Passed Away at 114.

[twyacht]

If you thought you were old,....Walter Bruening, would call you a young pup...

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/the-life-story-of-the-worlds-oldest-man-dead-in-mont-at-114/

GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) — Walter Breuning’s earliest memories stretched back 111 years, before home entertainment came with a twist of the radio dial. They were of his grandfather’s tales of killing Southerners in the Civil War.

But the stories stuck, becoming the first building blocks into what would develop into a deceptively simple philosophy that Breuning, the world’s oldest man at 114 before he died Thursday, credited to his longevity.

Here‘s the world’s oldest man’s secret to a long life:

- Embrace change, even when the change slaps you in the face. (”Every change is good.”)
- Eat two meals a day (”That’s all you need.”)
- Work as long as you can (”That money’s going to come in handy.”)
- Help others (”The more you do for others, the better shape you’re in.”)
Then there’s the hardest part. It’s a lesson Breuning said he learned from his grandfather: Accept death.
“We’re going to die. Some people are scared of dying. Never be afraid to die. Because you’re born to die,” he said.

Breuning died of natural causes in a Great Falls hospital where he had been a patient for much of April with an undisclosed illness, said Stacia Kirby, spokeswoman for the Rainbow Senior Living retirement home where Breuning lived.

He was the oldest man in the world and the second-oldest person, according to the Los Angeles-based Gerontology Research Group. Besse Cooper of Monroe, Ga. – born 26 days earlier – is the world’s oldest person.

Full article at link, this is just some parts....

At the beginning of the new century – that’s the 20th century – Breuning moved with his family from Melrose, Minn., to De Smet, S.D., where his father had taken a job as an engineer.

That first decade of the 1900s was literally a dark age for his family. They had no electricity or running water. A bath for young Walter would require his mother to fetch water from the well outside and heat it on the coal-burning stove. When they wanted to get around, they had three options: train, horse and foot.

The Montana job came with a nice raise – $90 a month for working seven days a week, “a lot of money at that time,” he said

The 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote in 1919 and the nation was riding a postwar wave into the Roaring `20s.

Walter Breuning bought his first car that year.

It was a secondhand Ford and cost just $150. Breuning remembered driving around town and spooking the horses that still crowded the dirt streets..

Breuning was optimistic. He and his wife bought property for $15 and planned to build a house.

Then it all went off the tracks. The Great Depression struck.

“Everybody got laid off in the `30s,” Breuning said. “Nobody had any money at all. In 1933, they built the civic center over here. Sixty-five cents an hour, you know. That was the wage – big wage.

For Walter Breuning, the 1950s was marked by the death of his wife. Agnes died in 1957 after 35 years of marriage. The couple didn’t have any children.

More than 50 years later, Breuning kept his feelings on his marriage and Agnes’ death guarded.

“We got along very good,” was about all he’d say. “She wouldn’t like to spend money, I’ll tell you that.”

Breuning never remarried. “Thought about it. That’s about it.”

He did what he always did. He kept working.

The same year the Beatles released their first album, Breuning decided it was time for him to retire from the railroad at age 67. It was 1963 and he had put in 50 years as a railroad worker.

But he stuck by his philosophy and kept working. He became the manager and secretary for the local chapter of the Shriners, a position he held until he was 99.

But he remained a fiercely loyal railroad man, so loyal that he only took an airplane once in his life, and that was to attend the funeral of a relative in Minneapolis.

But he didn’t regret anything, and he implored others to follow his philosophy.

“Everybody says your mind is the most important thing about your body. Your mind and your body. You keep both busy, and by God you’ll be here a long time,” he said.

*****

Complete story at link...Amazing life. RIP Mr. Bruening.