Tweet
A couple of Western Suburbs legends.
Centenarian neighbours show how a life well-lived works for them
They met at primary school in 1929, have been neighbours for more than 70 years and now these western suburbs centenarians are sharing the secrets of their long and wonderful life.
Wal Hopkins (left) and good mate and neighbour Vern Roberts rigged up the PVC pipe to share the Herald Sun each day.
They would have to be Australia?s oldest mates, certainly up there as the longest living next-door neighbours. Wal Hopkins and Vern Roberts first met at Geelong Road Primary School in Footscray in 1929. You read that right: These two western suburbs legends have known each other for more than 90 years and have lived next door to each other for 74 of them.
They live in almost identical neat, white weatherboards with a shared wooden fence that they lean across each morning to check on not only the news of the day in their shared copy of the Herald Sun, but also each other.
That connection ? along with their love of family and friends and of a lifetime of being active in their community ? is, say experts, why these two have lived 100 years.
IT?S A WONDERFUL LIFE
Hopkins is the older of the pair, having turned 100 in May, and Roberts will match his mate in October.
He is already busy planning the party. About 120 people turned up for Hopkins? shindig, where he shared stories of his wonderful life.
The list of his achievements is long ? recognition of a life well lived.
Hopkins was awarded an Order of Australia; he holds Scouting?s highest award; is a life member of the Footscray YMCA; a life governor of Footscray Hospital; and is a long-time supporter of many local sporting clubs, including the Footscray Hockey Club.
In 2004 he was nominated for Australian of the Year, but Hopkins says his contribution to community affairs was insignificant compared with the successful candidate.
That humility is typical of the man who needs to be nudged to reveal he was elevated to ?Legend? status with Hall of Fame recognition for his decades of service as a VFL umpire and adviser in the Footscray District League.
?He was always determined to make 100,? says daughter Julie Hopkins.
Wal Hopkins says you only get out of life what you are prepared to put into it, and the key is to be respectful and kind. It is an edict both Hopkins and Roberts live by. ?Treating people the same as you would like to be treated helps you make life more enjoyable,? Hopkins says.
Roberts says there are two things that are important in life: ?Be caring towards one?s parents and the second is have respect for other people.?
Each day the two meet at their shared fence to swap a few laughs and the Herald Sun.
Lifelong readers of the newspaper, Roberts says they have a daily custom of placing the newspaper inside a piece of PVC pipe so that when one has finished reading it, the other can have a turn.
After primary school, they lost contact until by coincidence they bought neighbouring blocks of land in the western suburbs. By then they had married their sweethearts, Evelyn Hopkins and Gwen Roberts, who would become the best of friends. Their wives died a year apart, almost to the day, both aged 93.
And while it would be easy to fill these pages with the achievements of Roberts and Hopkins, first the question that must be answered: How did they make it not only to 100 years but in such good shape, physically and mentally?
They offer that they have never smoked, are moderate drinkers and have always been active ? physically, socially and within their community.
Nor has there has ever been a cross word between the pair.
?We also did all our own home maintenance and we live still independently,? Roberts says. ?And we never had takeaway meals.?
They have also enjoyed a lifetime of good health, although Hopkins admits to a bit of trouble these days with his eyesight.
As for Roberts, he says his hearing it not what it used to be.
MATES FOR A LONG LIFE
At 99 years old, former RAAF flight rigger Roberts still stands straight and has an impressive memory for detail.
He has written extensively about his time on a Liberator aeroplane during World War II. Roberts was in a B-24 Liberator Squadron and is likely the oldest surviving witness of the end of World War 11.
He was there at Morotai, a rugged island in Indonesia, when General Sir Thomas Blamey and the Japanese generals came together to sign the formal surrender of the Japanese army on September 9, 1945.
Roberts marched in the Anzac Day parade to the Shrine of Remembrance until he was 94. Now he is helping to restore a B-24 Liberator ? the only one in Australia ? a beast dormant in a hangar in Werribee that Roberts and other volunteers started in 1995.
?We were home for Christmas 1945. And then it was time to pick up civilian life where we had left off,? he says.
And that included catching up with neighbour ?Wally? ? something the pair has been doing ever since.
Centenarian neighbours show how a life well-lived works for them
They met at primary school in 1929, have been neighbours for more than 70 years and now these western suburbs centenarians are sharing the secrets of their long and wonderful life.
Wal Hopkins (left) and good mate and neighbour Vern Roberts rigged up the PVC pipe to share the Herald Sun each day.
They would have to be Australia?s oldest mates, certainly up there as the longest living next-door neighbours. Wal Hopkins and Vern Roberts first met at Geelong Road Primary School in Footscray in 1929. You read that right: These two western suburbs legends have known each other for more than 90 years and have lived next door to each other for 74 of them.
They live in almost identical neat, white weatherboards with a shared wooden fence that they lean across each morning to check on not only the news of the day in their shared copy of the Herald Sun, but also each other.
That connection ? along with their love of family and friends and of a lifetime of being active in their community ? is, say experts, why these two have lived 100 years.
IT?S A WONDERFUL LIFE
Hopkins is the older of the pair, having turned 100 in May, and Roberts will match his mate in October.
He is already busy planning the party. About 120 people turned up for Hopkins? shindig, where he shared stories of his wonderful life.
The list of his achievements is long ? recognition of a life well lived.
Hopkins was awarded an Order of Australia; he holds Scouting?s highest award; is a life member of the Footscray YMCA; a life governor of Footscray Hospital; and is a long-time supporter of many local sporting clubs, including the Footscray Hockey Club.
In 2004 he was nominated for Australian of the Year, but Hopkins says his contribution to community affairs was insignificant compared with the successful candidate.
That humility is typical of the man who needs to be nudged to reveal he was elevated to ?Legend? status with Hall of Fame recognition for his decades of service as a VFL umpire and adviser in the Footscray District League.
?He was always determined to make 100,? says daughter Julie Hopkins.
Wal Hopkins says you only get out of life what you are prepared to put into it, and the key is to be respectful and kind. It is an edict both Hopkins and Roberts live by. ?Treating people the same as you would like to be treated helps you make life more enjoyable,? Hopkins says.
Roberts says there are two things that are important in life: ?Be caring towards one?s parents and the second is have respect for other people.?
Each day the two meet at their shared fence to swap a few laughs and the Herald Sun.
Lifelong readers of the newspaper, Roberts says they have a daily custom of placing the newspaper inside a piece of PVC pipe so that when one has finished reading it, the other can have a turn.
After primary school, they lost contact until by coincidence they bought neighbouring blocks of land in the western suburbs. By then they had married their sweethearts, Evelyn Hopkins and Gwen Roberts, who would become the best of friends. Their wives died a year apart, almost to the day, both aged 93.
And while it would be easy to fill these pages with the achievements of Roberts and Hopkins, first the question that must be answered: How did they make it not only to 100 years but in such good shape, physically and mentally?
They offer that they have never smoked, are moderate drinkers and have always been active ? physically, socially and within their community.
Nor has there has ever been a cross word between the pair.
?We also did all our own home maintenance and we live still independently,? Roberts says. ?And we never had takeaway meals.?
They have also enjoyed a lifetime of good health, although Hopkins admits to a bit of trouble these days with his eyesight.
As for Roberts, he says his hearing it not what it used to be.
MATES FOR A LONG LIFE
At 99 years old, former RAAF flight rigger Roberts still stands straight and has an impressive memory for detail.
He has written extensively about his time on a Liberator aeroplane during World War II. Roberts was in a B-24 Liberator Squadron and is likely the oldest surviving witness of the end of World War 11.
He was there at Morotai, a rugged island in Indonesia, when General Sir Thomas Blamey and the Japanese generals came together to sign the formal surrender of the Japanese army on September 9, 1945.
Roberts marched in the Anzac Day parade to the Shrine of Remembrance until he was 94. Now he is helping to restore a B-24 Liberator ? the only one in Australia ? a beast dormant in a hangar in Werribee that Roberts and other volunteers started in 1995.
?We were home for Christmas 1945. And then it was time to pick up civilian life where we had left off,? he says.
And that included catching up with neighbour ?Wally? ? something the pair has been doing ever since.
Comment