Prime Time

POSTED: Sunday, Mar. 09, 2008

Health challenges can’t keep retired naval officer from service

Name: Lee Carter.

Age: 70.

Residence: Spring Creek Retirement & Assisted Living Facility.

Letting go: Carter had a hard time saying goodbye to his tools and hobbies when he and his wife moved into assisted living, but he still flies the radio-controlled model airplanes he enjoyed when they lived in Ferndale.

In the Navy: “At the ripe age of 17, I joined the U.S. Navy,” Carter says. “Spent 24 years to the day playing sailor.”

Still serving: After boot camp Carter specialized in aviation electronics at school in Memphis, Tenn. Now he serves Ferndale’s American Legion Post 154 as chaplain.

Back to school: Carter retired as a naval officer in 1979 and moved from Oak Harbor to — “of all places” — Sedro-Woolley two years later when his son graduated from high school.

He attended classes at Skagit Valley College before he, his son and wife moved to Pullman to join his daughter, who enrolled in classes at Washington State University.

His better half: After spending 24 years in the Navy, Carter estimates he spent 10 years overseas on-and-off. “For me to be a sailor, and fly my silly airplanes, and not get killed,” Carter reminisces. “My wife was a strong enough lady and strong enough wife to take care of my family. If anyone gets any credit, she does.”

Close to home: His daughter and her husband both work at Boeing as electrical engineers, and his son, who also graduated from WSU, became a civil engineer in Whatcom County. “My family has never scattered to the four winds,” Carter says. “We’re all close enough to have dinner together once a week.”

Setbacks: Carter was diagnosed with Strep C three years ago, but not before the blood disease destroyed two of his heart valves. Doctors placed a stint in his heart. When they put him under amnesia to check it the next day, he had an allergic reaction to the contrast dye. His heart stopped beating and his lungs filled with liquid. “I’d never been sick a day in my life,” Carter says.

Recovery path: “With all the things that happened, and I didn’t die?” Carter marvels. “If it was not for (Pacific) Northwest Cardiology, I would not be here.”

Special care: Carter takes insulin every four hours, 52 pills in the morning and almost that many during the day. It was a burden for his wife to monitor his medication, he says. “Now there’s someone to help and make sure it’s correct” at their assisted living facility.

Playing: “There are an awful lot of things to do here,” Carter says, including bridge, cribbage, pinochle, exercise facilities and a trainer who visits weekly. Carter looks forward to family night each month and occasional musical entertainment.

Johnny on the spot: Spring Creek vans pull up to the lobby doors to chauffeur residents to errands or, in Carter’s case, visit his wife after her upcoming orthopedic surgery. He also uses the transportation for doctor’s appointments at least three times each week, he says, including a trip to Madrona Medical Group in Seattle for blood tests and treatment.

Community: Carter says he’s made friends with just about everyone at Spring Creek. “Anyone can be as friendly or standoffish as they want, but being standoffish isn’t very much fun.”

On duty: Carter volunteers as one of eight uniformed officers at the Ferndale Police Department through S.C.O.P.E. — Senior Citizens on Patrol Enhancement. He tests home security at the request of homeowners leaving town, tracks speeders and enforces parking regulations. “We don’t like people to park in handicap places if they’re not supposed to.”

Best life memory: “Hunting and fishing with my dad and brother is probably as good of a time as I’ve ever had,” says Carter, a former Boy Scout who grew up in Eugene, Ore. “My dad saw to it I was a much better than average fisherman, and a much better than average hunter.”

Best memory at Spring Creek: “The care you get from the staff. I can’t say enough. They go out of their way to accommodate everyone.” What he appreciates now that he didn’t when he was younger: Health. “But consider 70,” Carter says. “If you divide that up, most of them have been damn good years.

“I’ve been everywhere I’ve wanted to go, done everything I wanted to do. You thank your lucky stars it turned out that way.”

Golden anniversary: Carter and his wife Sandra — he calls her Sandy — celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this year.

“We all go through changes in our life,” Carter says. “Particularly when I got so damnably sick. I learned I’m not still alive because God wanted me to be alive. I believe I’m alive because God didn’t want to disappoint my wife. I believe with all my heart that God answered my wife’s prayers.”

Biggest joys: A wife, a son, a daughter and grandkids. “Nothing else matters.”