100-year-old volunteer brings cheer to Peters Meals on Wheels
One of Vida Kernich’s earliest memories is seeing her brother line his shoes with newspaper during the Depression.
And on the third of the month, when Social Security checks arrive, she continues to give thanks for President Franklin Roosevelt, who signed the program into law when she was in elementary school. No small number of people may be fretting about Social Security’s continued viability nowadays, but Kernich is confident its problems will be remedied.
It’s that kind of cheerful optimism that has perhaps helped Kernich get to the century mark. On June 28, the Peters Township resident will be celebrating her 100th birthday, and celebrations are planned in her neighborhood and at Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Cathedral near Whitehall, the part of the Pittsburgh area where she grew up.
She enjoys reading, and “I love to eat good food,” Kernich pointed out on a recent Tuesday morning. She was at the Peters Township headquarters of Meals on Wheels, which is tucked in the back of the Donaldson’s Crossroads shopping center. Kernich takes a seat there on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and places cookies in sandwich bags, which are then sent out with the meals other volunteers are preparing.
“I just feel in my heart I’m helping,” Kernich explained. “And it takes up my time. I look forward to it.”
Now living with her daughter and looking forward to the births of her first great-grandchildren this summer, Kernich was the youngest of six children. Her parents had an arranged marriage and her mother came to Pittsburgh from Serbia. With a remarkable recall for dates and details, Kernich pointed out that after her mother came to America, the only member of her extended family her mother saw again was a nephew who came to visit in 1954.
“She was an excellent seamstress,” Kernich said. “She could crochet, she could knit. She was a wonderful seamstress, and to this day I can’t even sew a button.”
No one in her immediate family made it all the way to 100. One brother, in fact, died at age 40 of a heart attack after coming home from World War II. It’s natural to ask centenarians if they have some kind of magic formula for longevity, and Kernich credits the fact she has never been a smoker or a drinker, and she has adhered to a Mediterranean diet.
“I was raised on plant-based foods,” she explained. “No processed foods. There was my mother in the kitchen, cooking, baking. And my father said he didn’t want any arguing while we were eating dinner.”
Kernich is called “Grandma Vida” by her fellow Meals on Wheels volunteers. Lisa Fair, the executive director of the Peters Meals on Wheels program, said that “Grandma Vida is always cheerful. She is always willing to help. All our efforts for a good cause.”
Kernich said, “I don’t care if you’re rich or poor, you help others. I feel that kindness to people is very, very important.”