Man volunteers at local children’s center to honor his late wife

By Lindsay Ward

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    VERONA, Pennsylvania (KDKA) — A Pittsburgh-area man volunteers at a local children’s center in Verona to honor his late wife.

For some, retirement doesn’t always involve relaxing. It can help people find another purpose. A purpose is what 86-year-old Paul Huber found after spending time with those much younger than him.

Three times a week, Huber volunteers at Riverview Children’s Center in Verona. His love and commitment to others doesn’t begin at the center. It starts with a “nagging,” if anyone were to ask Huber.

“That’s exactly what it was. It was something nagging in my head [that] said, ‘Come over, see what you can do.'”

He believes it was coming from his late wife, Connie Huber. He told KDKA-TV he volunteers in memory of her, because Connie, never got to.

“She got her clearances, but then she was ill, she had COPD. And then, she got to the point she couldn’t do it anymore,” said Paul.

Paul says Connie died in 2012, but she loved the center and would often donate.

“We were having a really hard time finding cot sheets of all things. She offered to make them for us. So, she would sew the cot sheets and put the elastic on the ends,” said Betty Lisowski, executive director of the River Children’s Center.

A few years after Connie’s passing, Paul reached out to Betty.

“I can’t think of anything better to do, to honor her memory, than to volunteer here if you’ll have me. And I thought, [ah], who wouldn’t have you, right?” said Lisowski.

Paul got his clearances and started in the toddler room where he remains 10 years later. He also developed the nickname, “Mr. Paul” and is referred to as the center’s “Pap-Pap.”

“Their eyes light up and they’ll yell out, ‘Mr. Paul, Mr. Paul,’ and they’ll all gather around him,” said Kerry Parker, lead teacher in the older toddler room.

He even has his own chair which he’s often seen sitting in and reading with one, or sometimes two, children on his lap. Like the children, the staff have embraced Paul. He travels with them to conferences.

“He does trainings. He uses those things in the classroom,” said Parker.

For Paul, volunteering might have started as a way to honor his late wife, but it ended up giving him a second family.

“These teachers are all like my children,” he said. And he has no plans of stopping.

“I just keep coming back.”

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