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MILLBURY, Mass. - Helen Mankevetch calls the Millbury Senior Center "good therapy."
Perhaps good therapy needs to put a picture of her under its definition. Mankevetch has been volunteering at the Millbury Senior Center for 26 years. She's prepared and served meals, waited tables, cleaned, worked in the office, still serves on the Council of Aging and, for the last 13 years, has taught the weekly Yoga class.
She had to give that up because she was slowing down, she said, and couldn't lead the class anymore. But she still attends every yoga class and if she has to take a breather now and again, no one will complain much: Helen Mankevetch is 96 years old.
Not many people begin teaching yoga at 81, but she did and it, as well her constant presence at the center, have kept her young - or at least not feeling her age.
"When I first moved to Millbury, the Senior Center was at Asa Waters," she said. "It was very cramped quarters, but I still can't get over what the center has done for me personally.
"And my Guy," she added, speaking about her deceased husband. "He lived to the age of 99."
Mankevetch, as one would expect, deflects all credit to the center to Executive Director Judy O'Connor.
"All the things she had to keep up with and remember, to get all the information that the builders and town wanted....I don't know how she kept all that information in her head," she said.
O'Connor says that Mankevetch is a shining example of what great things people can derive from the center.
"She's been with me for 26 years and she's amazing," O'Connor said. "Can you imagine even doing a yoga class at 96, never mind leading one?"
Mankevetch volunteers nearly every day at the center.
Mankevetch says she's not aware of being 96 in the aspect that "I don't know how I'm supposed to act at 96, but I can you tell I don't feel 96.
"The only problem I have is..... what the hell, I'm aging," she said with a laugh. "I attribute living this long to being active at the Senior Center, it keeps me active and at my age, you've got to MOVE!"
Nothing can slow down Mankevetch, never mind stop her. She was hit by a car at the age of 90, but amazingly, she suffered no broken bones. She says it's a combination of the yoga and moving which keeps her limber. Even a bout with congestive heart failure kept her out of yoga class for only a week.
Mankevetch also credits the socializing as good therapy.
"It doesn't matter, even if you don't like someone, you don't have to live with them," she said. "Us oldtimers, we're too old to fight, it doesn't matter as long as we're talking and active."
She chuckled and added, "Today we're going to the casino. I plan on dying broke. You can't take it with you or spend it when you go.
"Our town is blessed to have such a Senior Center. We old folks can get together and we make fun of our illnesses. We talk about it, and we cope with it," she added.
She loves being at the center and not only volunteering but the being active to her is the most important.
"By coming here, you're helping yourself by socializing, and at those times when you're having problems, there are others here to help each other," she said.
Life is far from done for Mankevetch. "Llfe is all about learning" she said. "I'm 96 years old and I'm still learning. I must have been a dumb broad when I was young because I feel I learn more now than back then."
Mankevetch strongly recommends the Senior Center for her peers.
"After yoga I was sore and my doctor asked me how I was feeling. I told him I was too tired to kick the bucket," she said laughing.
As the clock struck two, Mankevetch was off to the casino and said, "I got to go and try to win some money, while I still have the energy."
So the next time you're at the Senior Center, check out the Yoga class, because the youngest 96 year old you'll ever meet may be running it.
