Working out to live

Elderly man stays fit with exercise, love of life

By ALISON BESHUR, The Brownsville Herald

 May 30, 2003

 

Raul Femat, 89, walks three miles at Sunrise Mall, has ridden his bike for decades to stay healthy and alive, in addition to doing all that he lifts weights and works out with a punching bag.  

Dozens of family photographs circle the walls of his front room. Stacks of letters gather dust under bronze animal-shaped paperweights. Portraits of Raul Femat’s two daughters and their families rest on the dining room table over a lace tablecloth protected by a clear plastic sheet.

"You can see I’m running out of space," said the long-time Brownsville resident.

After a workout and a hearty breakfast, he opens a prayer book and reads the morning paragraph. Later in the day, he reads the evening prayer.

"The Lord has given me all of these years," Femat said holding up a driver’s license that reveals his date of birth – Nov. 5, 1913.

His only goal in life, he says, is to stay alive and healthy.

For more than 40 years, the 89-year-old Mission native has worn a police whistle while riding a bicycle around Brownsville, lifted weights and boxed a dusty punching bag in the corner of his garage. His breakfast consists of a papaya, a piece of cantaloupe, a soft-boiled egg, a banana, baby carrots and a cup of coffee with a handful of vanilla wafer cookies.

Last month, Femat won his first race plaque after walking in a 1-mile race at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College and placing first in his age division of 70 and older for completing the event in about 12 minutes.

He was also given an honorary award for finishing the fun run.

Femat moved to Brownsville and built his house in the 2000 block of Boca Chica Boulevard in the mid-1940s. During that time, the house was along a two-lane gravel road and far from the city limits.

"When we built the house, we were out in the county," Femat said. "We didn’t have sewage."

For several more decades, he worked as an import-export clerk for the Missouri Pacific Railroad.

"Jobs were hard to get," he recalls. "I took it and stayed with it for 42 years."

The more than 50 years, he has lived in the house, now nestled among commercial outlets on one of Brownsville’s busiest roads, have been marked with glories and achievements nearly invisible to the public eye.

His three-bedroom home is an archive of his family’s lives and of the area’s history. His happiest moments have been those times surrounded by family members, he said.

And as he nears his 90th birthday, Femat says there’s little he would change about the way he has lived his life.

"I would do it all over again," said Femat, smiling and deepening the creases in his cheeks.