Years ago, as boys growing up in Connecticut, Walter and Jack Kaslikowski would sometimes share a room with their two other brothers. Now, nearly a century later, the two military veterans, 95 and 97, respectively, are roommates again in a Florida nursing home.
All four of the Kaslikowski boys — sons of Polish immigrants, who settled in the harbor town of Stamford, CT — fought in World War II. Jack was a paratrooper in the Army’s 82nd Airborne who received a medal for “heroic conduct,” while the younger Walter carried supplies as part of the Merchant Marines.
After years traveling the world, the two men now reside together in the same room at the Douglas T. Jacobson State Veterans Home in Port Charlotte, FL, the Fort Myers News-Press reports. The idea to bunk up came by way of Laura Walsh Soule, Walter’s power of attorney, a few years after Walter’s second wife died.
“I think it will make both of their lives more interesting at this point in their life and also give them a longer life as well because they’re happy, they’re happy together,” she told the newspaper.
Walter has reportedly tried to ease his older brother into the scene at the nursing home. “Whatever’s going on, there’s always something, I take him,” he said. Jack has enjoyed spending time in the sun and listening to music from the 1940s and ’50s, while his brother relishes time spent in the library. Walter wakes up at the crack of dawn while Jack sleeps in, but they both love reminiscing, speaking Polish to each other and enjoying the occasional non-alcoholic beer during the home’s happy hour.
“We still live the life we want to live,” Jack Kaslikowski tells the newspaper.
