Painter retires after 50 years of service | va greater los angeles health care | veterans affairs

For some people, service can mean giving a few hours of yourself, or weeks, months and even years, but for one man it was 50 years. Bruce Jay Costa a painter from the engineering department,

will have a bittersweet moment on Nov. 9, 2023, when he officially retires from the VA after spending a lifetime on the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center campus. Costa said that the VA

hadn’t been his original plan. Originally a New Bedford, Massachusetts native, he served three years in the Air Force as a painter, being denied the opportunity to go to Vietnam on three

separate occasions, before he separated in Wichita, Kansas and spent time trying to become a police officer, then fire fighter, before joining VA as a clerk and then eventually leaving VA to

move to Los Angeles in 1976 to spend time with his older brother. He eventually began working for VA again in the dietetics department, pushing food carts around to patients, before jumping

on a painter position for the engineering department, and he never looked back. It takes a special person to stay in one position for decades, where Costa said the only pay increases he

received were Cost of Living Allowances. Despite that, he managed to buy two houses during his time with VA. He attributed his longevity to enjoying the people and the place he worked;

painting meant he rarely spent very long in any one place, and he became intimately familiar with the campus. His time here has led to lifelong friendships and was the place where he met his

wife of twenty years. Costa said he grew up in a Portuguese Catholic family where saving money was a part of daily life, his mother creating a ‘Christmas Club’ where they’d save money from

doing chores and jobs like cutting grass, so that by the end of the year they’d have enough money to buy Christmas gifts. “I believe in the old-fashioned way.” She also demonstrated a strong

work ethic, having worked for the State of Massachusetts for 44 years, retiring at 88 years old. His advice for people working for the VA reflects this: “The number one thing is you’ve got

to put money in the TSP, so that way the government doubles it; that’s money for the future.” Costa said his favorite thing about working for the VA, along with the generous number of

holidays, was being able to help Veterans with a few words of support here and there, as he was painting. “I’ve had a couple gentlemen come up to me to thank me.” As far as the changes he

has seen during his time here, he said the biggest is occurring right now, with all the Veteran housing taking place.  With his retirement looming ever closer, Costa doesn’t have any plans,

other than applying for a rehire here. He has his Civil Service Retirement System now but is still a few units short of being able to retire with Social Security benefits. His final goal

post stays in his sights: “My pension will take care of me until the day I die.”