MILWAUKEE (SPECTRUM NEWS) — Senior living facilities across the country and are doing everything they can to keep their residents safe amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

At Chai Point Senior Living facility in Milwaukee is where we meet 96 year-old Ruane Hill. He was born and raised in Wisconsin and has lived quite a life. Hill served in WWII as an army engineer. A tear gas accident heading into his Freshman year of high school left him deaf and blind on one side. He’s weathered the measles, mumps, and tonsillitis. 

“I had the red measles,” Hill says.

SPECTRUM NEWS ONE: What was the world like in the world back during WWII? 

Ruane Hill: “It was a very strange world by comparison. We were fighting a popular war and we haven’t had the likes of that since. Everyone was for it and everyone was looking to do whatever necessary to get there. ” 

The coronavirus pandemic is a war of a different kind. Bonne Barczak, the activities director at Chai Point is finding herself on the frontlines.

“Those of us who come and go are so fearful of being …“The One”... it’s frightening, it controls my thoughts,” Barcza says.

“What happened to me happened to lots of people in the war and I have no complaint but this I can do nothing but sit in my room and vegetate,” says Hill. 

However, exercising is still a priority in his life. Every day after breakfast, he walks for an hour. “Twelve floors at High Point at a brisk pace and I am well known to the staff around here as that guy who does the floors, ” says Hill.

Regular exercise helps us all cope with what’s going on. However, there’s nothing like a good laugh to make even the toughest of times. 

“That's my goal to share a minimum of five jokes on the floor and if I only get a smile I will take it, but if I get a chuckle, giggle, laugh, my job is done here,” says Barczak.​