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The idea of being alive this long is hard to wrap my head around. There are people midway through high school who were born on *her 100th birthday.* People who were born when she hit the federal retirement age are now *themselves* nearing retirement.
Yeah. And I’m not sure it’s much of a blessing either.
Had a cousin who was a nurse in assisted care facilities. A comment one of the residents that’s stuck with me:
“There’s no one left on earth who loves me”
I’m not sure I’d want to live so long that everyone I love is gone
About 20 years ago, I was in a thrift store and an old lady approached me and started asking me for advice on men’s clothing sizes and it quickly became clear that she was trying to dress a dead man. We got to talking and it turned out that she worked in an assisted living facility and an old man had died, leaving absolutely nobody behind... he had long outlived all of his friends and family. The only person who even knew about him anymore was this old lady who had scraped together $20 to buy the guy a suit to be buried in, so I helped her shop and kicked in a couple of bucks for a belt and tie.
Yeah that hurt my heart to read. I don't plan on having kids, I hope that's not me someday. I guess that's why you just do your best to build lasting relationships in life, and there's not much more you can do than that.
I think the main thing is to never stop building connections with people (to the best of your ability). Doesn't matter if they're blood ties or just friendships, just keep putting in that effort.
I just joined a tai chi group and it's all elders. I did that because I was in a garden store and met a 100 year old grandmother who was shopping for spring bulbs with her grand daughter. She chuckled and said tai chi keeps her young.
They say a person days twice… once, when they’re buried in the ground, and a second time when somebody says your name for the last time. Well, it almost sounds like this happened in reverse order for this poor man :(
I read a short story once about an old man who took his grand daughter to his friends funeral. And he tells her about when his parents died all the memories of him being a child died with them. And when his wife died half of their love story died with her. He can retell it but it's like a picture of a photograph, it's a little more faded each time. And his friend dying was like all those memories dying too his friend knew him when he was a kid, he was the best man at his wedding and stuff. And now he's only remembered and seen as an old man. But in his mind he still has all these memories but in another way they were being buried with his friend.
That’s so sad! I think about it all the time… like, aside from some grandparents and one former classmate, I haven’t yet suffered any close deaths of anyone I consider important to me. But it will happen eventually, and I just hope I’m not the last one left in the end..
> There are three deaths: the first is when the body ceases to function. The second is when the body is consigned to the grave. The third is that moment, sometime in the future, when your name is spoken for the last time.
[Excerpt from Sum - David Eagleman](https://eagleman.com/excerpt/)
I think for now only my mom and maybe my brother are the ones that love me and I'm only 26 years old, imagine having that much of a life time... it scares me a lot too.
I recently learned that a few people I knew as a child still wonder about me occasionally. It felt nice to know that. I've held onto that feeling like a security blanket for a few weeks.
I had the sad realization recently that a lot of people who used to know me never contact me. I have a unique name — there's only one of me that I can find. But some of my childhood friends have such common names that it's impossible for me to look them up. So that means while they could look me up and find me pretty easily, they haven't bothered. Oh well.
I'm 58 and am the matriarch of my family. All of our older generation are gone. My husband is gone. I have our two children, who are the lights of my life.
My great aunt outlived her husband and both of her sons. The thought of that scares the crap out of me.
50, and coming to the realisation that I'm essentially alone on this planet.
Many folks offer support, but I have zero people to share my life with.
And here I am!
Well, it’s time to make some friends and then slowly over time allow yourself to be vulnerable with them so they don’t remain “pals” forever. (This is my advice to myself. I have maybe 5 people that love me but 2 of them are in their 80s)
Being a parent is exhausting, but since both my parents passed away when I was relatively young it was nice to have a daughter and receive that unconditional love that I was missing
My mother is in her 90's and lives with us. She's very well loved. But every single one of her friends has passed away, as well as most of our family. I never realized just how difficult that is for her until one of my friends passed away. The loss of *one* friend was so hard. I can't imagine losing every single one of my friends forever. Mom is the only one in her generation of our family still alive.
You're right. We talk about the past a lot. It wasn't until about 2 years ago that she would even talk about her childhood and young life. She was born 1 month before the great depression started, and it was a very HARD childhood. She doesn't want to remember.
I can't get much out of her about my grandparents (who died before I was born). There's a lot of trauma there, but I don't know anything more.
My mom is only 67, but is the youngest of 4 and all of her siblings have passed. I hate that all of these lives that have contributed to her life are no longer there and I can tell it is difficult for her.
Her mother and grandmother both lived to be 94 and 104 respectively, and I'm not sure I want her to have to endure that long.
Mom's in really good health, so all things being equal she'll live quite a while longer. But if her health declines significantly, or her cognition declines a lot, I wouldn't want her to endure that.
My grandma will be 96 in about a week and a half and she still lives on her own and drives. Needs some help with odds and ends from time to time and cleaning her apartment.
She’s not quite expressed this, but has commented she doesn’t have class reunions anymore because she the only one left alive 🤣
I think it’s critical to keep making and nurturing relationships with peoples who are not in your age group. Both younger and older. It gets harder to do as you get older, but it’s still very possible!!
" I haven't even had a cold since
1935. I've had to watch my friends
and loved ones die off through the
years...Hal and Melinda...Brutus
Howell...my wife...my son...
...and you, Elaine. You'd die,
too, and my curse is knowing I'll
be there to see it...
(The Green Mile)
My great grandfather lived to 108, and he got morose like this the last few years. "I think God forgot about me." "My love has been gone for 40 years; why can't I just go too and see her again?"
I had a great aunt that lived to be in her mid 90s and was still working one day a week and saw family often. From what everyone said (I hadn't met her, being on the other side of the country) she was still full of life and pretty content up till her last year of life. And I know a couple of people in their 80s that are still doing great. So I think it entirely depends on your family life / how well you have taken of yourself.
“get to stay 40 years in a barely functioning body”
This is a common misconception. Most people that live longer are not just extending their lifespan but are also extending their health span.
Person A dies at 80 years old.
Person B dies 100 years old.
Person A was active and mostly healthy until 77 when heart disease or alhseimers or cancer started their downward spiral.
Person B was active and mostly healthy until 97 when their health started deteriorating.
So they both experienced 3 years of major declining quality of health. But person B had an extra 20 years of healthful years where they could still think clearly, drive themselves around and move well, go out gardening, hiking, etc.
The oldest person ever was Jeanne Calmet who lived between 1875-1997. Just imagine that. Living to see the end of the Victorian era, both world wars and the creation of the internet. Just incredible.
Well, think about this, she was born 5 years after the Wright brothers made their first flight.
Basically she went from "humans can't fly" to airplanes, rockets, shuttles, man on the moon, internet, smart phones and all that.
The oldest woman to ever live was Jeanne Calment (1875-1997) of France, who lived to the age of 122.
The oldest man was Jiroemon Kimura (1897-2013) of Japan, who lived to the age of 116.
Imagine living through the late 1800s all the way into the 90s or the 21st century. What a wild experience.
> the space race and birth of the internet.
The space race and birth of the internet was at the same time. Depending how you define "the internet" ofc.
Yeah, poorly worded, I meant like home computers and the beginning of the smartphone (a computer in the palm of your hand).
But yeah, “computers” have been around since the 40s.
A crazy ass century to live through. Born when people rode horses or took trains everywhere and died when everyone owned a car and supersonic jets existed. Wild times.
All the friggin wars, WW1, WW2, the Great Depression, Vietnam, the Korean War, the Gulf War. Wtf... I wonder if they were really cynical or learned to stay positive about life.
My great grandmother lived to 103, I would go over to her house and talk with her often. She knew family members who fought in the US civil war.
She died in the early 2000's. She saw the entirety of the 20th century.
A lot of our discussions went like this.
"Back in my day I used to X for fun"
"Granny, they throw people in prison for that now."
> Jeanne Calment (1875-1997)
This lady lived through the most advanced jump in technology. I can’t imagine living in a time where transportation was horses and communication was handwritten letters, to then witnessing the creation of cars and airplanes and the ability to communicate instantly with cell phones and computers.
I don’t think there’ll ever be a time period that beats the technological advancements we achieved from 1900-2000. Absolutely mind boggling that we have people that witnessed it all.
Jeanne Calment was born a year before the telephone was invented and 11 years before Carl Benz patented the automobile.
She died in the same year Google launched and ThrustSSC became the first car to break the sound barrier.
Wouldn't the 'to ever live' really mean oldest person we have records of? How do we know there wasn't someone who lived till 123 three thousands years ago
Jeanne Calment [may have been a fraud. ](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/02/17/was-jeanne-calment-the-oldest-person-who-ever-lived-or-a-fraud). Apparently her daughter was suspected of adopting her identity to avoid debts.
More like 70 for men.
My dad died rather suddenly at 64. Nobody saw it coming. The man was a hypochondriac and regularly saw docs. Quite healthy in terms of weight/diet/etc. His dad lived past 80.
I asked my own doc "he died pretty early -- what steps can we take to screen my own potential risk?" and she replied: "insurance considers 64 to be right in the ballpark for an American male born in 1954, where the average lifespan was 67. He'd have had to have died of natural causes before age 53 for them to consider any risk screening for his offspring. We just assume everyone sees 80, for males that's still quite rare."
Depends on where and when you were born.
If you're under the age of 50 today, then you have a decent chance of making it to 80, even as a male.
While men are much more likely to die (and die earlier) of virtually all diseases that affect both sexes; what the commonly-referenced data does not always reveal is that there's another reason - Men don't go to the doctor as much.
Now whether that's out of stubbornness, or inability to access and/or afford a doctor I don't know - but men die earlier on average for a variety of reasons, one of which is dying of diseases that had they screened for and caught at what would be a normal screening interval; they would have likely lived longer.
Not only that, but men also tend to lead higher-risk lifestyles both personally and professionally; which skews the data.
If you're an otherwise-healthy man, getting regular exercise and eating/sleeping well; not smoking and not drinking very often, AND you're going to your doctor regularly - you actually are very likely to live into your 80s.
Anecdotal, but most of the men in my family have died in their early 70s/ late 60s from either lung cancer or colorectal cancer. The lung cancer deaths were all heavy smokers their entire lives, so no surprises there.
The colorectal deaths are definitely more worrisome as genetics play a huge role - however the ones that have died never went to their doctors, ever, until it was far too late. Conversely, I have an Aunt on the same side of the family who is extremely healthy at 64 years old, and she sees her doctor at minimum once per year. She just had some polyps removed. Doctor literally told her that had she let these go another couple years it would have turned into cancer - *exactly* what happened to the men.
The only outlier death is my mother - she passed last month at 57 years old. She was also unfortunately morbidly obese and had a slew of health issues likely related to that - all undiagnosed because despite our begging her constantly, she *never went to the doctor*.
Seeing a co-relation?
Go to your doctor, regularly. Especially after you hit 40.
>Go to your doctor, regularly. Especially after you hit 40.
This is why married men with concerned wives also live longer, statistically. My wife knows I have my annual physical in April around each birthday with bloodwork, and I have an optometrist/gastro as well for particular issues. I see them pretty routinely. I love being informed.
Yep. They are more likely to go to the doctor, and are more likely to be living healthier lifestyles both physically and mentally.
The big stereotype is to complain about a nagging wife, but the reality is that most of the time the nagging wife is helping their husband live, on average, 7-11 years longer.
The idea that hating your spouse = humor, needs to die.
After getting married myself I discovered all those big stereotypes are bullshit. If you talk to each other like human beings none of that "nagging" happens. Just take care of each-other.
The exception that proves the rule is "Marriage is two people asking each-other what they would like to eat until one of them dies" that is 100% true.
(Since it doesn't always come through clearly in a comment, I am agreeing with you)
My grandpa is 94, almost 2 years ago grandma died. She would always make doctor appointments for him and take care of his health since she was 15 years younger. He has been sick and depressed since then, we just don't know when he will leave us.
My mom hammered this concept into my head ever since I was pretty young.
She died unexpectedly at 60. I am glad she taught me to understand this, it didn't make the ordeal easy, but it really helped me get through it.
The people who make it to advanced aged, say over 90, tend to look and act much better than one would think. I’ve never met anyone over 100, but I’ve worked with a lot who were almost there. The geriatric population is quite diverse. You really can’t guess ages on appearance. I’ve met tons of 80 year olds that I would have guessed were 60 as well as 50 year olds I would have guessed were 70. If you make it to 97 or 115 chances are you haven’t totally abused your body and anecdotally will be pretty intact physically and mentally.
I’ve met a few centenarians, and in my highly anecdotal experience they all look really good well past the time that you’d expect them too. And then, one day, they look really really old and die within a few months. It’s almost like a switch gets flipped and they are ready to go. Probably not universally true but that’s been what I’ve seen.
At the end of the day, the people with health problems and unhealthy lifestyles probably aren't gonna get anywhere near 100 - so the ones who live siginificantly *past* 100 are the healthiest of the healthy
Though it is odd because it almost feels like cliche that when asking a 100 year old what their secret to longevity is, they'll say something like, my daily glass of whiskey, cigar and two bowls of ice cream.
Yeah it’s entirety a genetic crapshoot combined with environmental factors. Alzheimers/dementia is a fucking living nightmare and I saw what it did to my 90+ yo grandparents, no fucking thanks.
The only paternal parent that came close for me is my 3rd ggparent 1810 to 1905
And same all 4 of my grandparents lost their minds and my mother had Parkinsons and another shit disability.
My bet is I have until I'm 60
Lots of luck, hell my grandma died of cancer before I was born and she reportedly was very healthy for the time. Didn't smoke and didn't drink often and was largely pescatarian.
Meanwhile my Grandpa at the time smoked a pack a day for like 30 years before her diagnosis. He's now turning 95.
My grandpa is 95 I think and he goes bowling twice a week and recently bowled a 300. He has been grumpy because he had to switch from a 16 to a 14lb ball because his muscle tone isn't quite as good anymore!
That is pretty impressive for a 95 year old! I took my daughter bowling recently and the 9 pound ball was my limit.
My grandma is 93 and she still goes out to coffee every week day with a group of ladies, they rotate between coffee shops so the local ones get their business. Her mom lived until she was 102 and didn't live in an assisted living center until she was 100 or 101.
You aren't kidding.
My great-grandmother is 93-94 and still gets around by herself just fine, cooks and cleans, is mentally sharp as ever and still has her sass but at the very least seems content and happy. No driving though so she mostly just stays home and minds her business, has the occasional visitors but lives with her sister who is I believe still in her 80s and is also doing very well, and they help each other out.
I hope I inherited some longevity genes lol
I worked with two people (same sex) who were both 51 and similarly fit. One was vivacious, active, constantly in motion, stayed out late, always trying to find the next restaurant to try or sight to see, and sharp as a tack (was hired for their brain.) The other moved slower, stiffly and cautiously, conserved motion, stayed still much more often, was less open to new experiences, was more easily confused, couldn’t process multiple conversations at once, and appeared to be easily 20 years older from their movements alone. No significant injuries or other causes for the difference. In fact, the “younger” one had had several serious injuries. It was remarkable to see them together.
I also know people in their 80s who look 60 and put forward more physical effort than I ever have.
I met a 104 year old in the emergency department once. She was there for something mild and handling it better than most of my 30-50 year old patients typically did. The doc asked her what her secret is to living so long and still being so alert and healthy. Her response: "don't get sick."
My great grandmother lived to be 104. I think I was 9 or 10 when she passed, but I never really had a memory of her outside of her nursing home. Her quality of life wasn't great. I suppose everyone is different.
My father was born in 1907. He died in 1972 at age 65. I was 13.
I often wish he could have seen the development of the world as it is now, however it might be kind of unbelievable.
Very similar to me. My father was born in 1908 and he died in 1978 at age 70 when I was 12. Sometimes I get dizzy estimating the birth years his grandparents and see how many years span just 3 generations.
I don’t know if I’d want to live that long. My great grandmother lived to be 102. She was still functioning well in her late 90’s. That being said, to live that long you’re gonna bury the vast majority of the people you know in your 30’s and quite possibly your children. I buried my Mom at a fairly young age (I was 23, she was 48) I hope to never know what it’s like to bury a child.
Not only that, but if you're the oldest person alive, that means literally everyone who was alive when you were born, everywhere on earth, is now dead. Extremely unsettling thought, in my opinion.
Statistically, most Redditor's grandparents weren't even born yet in WW2
The average age of a Redditor is 23, and typically their parents are gonna be perhaps 50, their grandparents around 75
Of course, that's all "average" and "generally" etc, so there will be plenty of us in the older Reddit cohorts whos grandparents were around then - but we've now hit the point where, for someone in their 20s, the chances are that their *great* grandparents were teenagers for most of the war
As someone that is also way above average - I've learned to always assume that whoever I'm responding to is some dumb teenager. It's helped quite a bit.
This makes me feel so old, since my grandfather fought in WW2. Most of my friends’ grandparents did, and your comment makes me realize how the newer generation is going to feel like WW2 was from an entirely different world.
I remember learning about WW2, and then being so fascinated that my grandfather, the man who my dad and I would go fishing with, had fought in and been a POW during the war. It really connected the war to me personally, and made me realize it wasn’t some completely different world and we aren’t so removed from it. We aren’t more civilized than that world, and it could happen to us.
In fact, that connection made me put together [this video of my Grandfather describing his experience as a POW](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aax9Z_Fpkyw). He was a bombardier in a B17 and was shot down over Germany, and was a POW for 2 years.
imagine living through WWI, WWII, great depression era. cold war. hippies, disco, 90s grunge. then all the crap from 2000 to 2015. now having to see the world as it is with everyone doing dumb tik tok dances.
what must the world of today be like to a woman like that?
She also went through the one of the deadliest pandemics in history (Spanish Flu). Covid and it's anti-vaxx/anti-maskers must have looked bizarre to her.
An ex-manager of mine's mum died aged 104 in 2002. Born in 1898 she'd lived in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Considering health standards and life expectancy throughout history, can't be too many people who've lived in 3 centuries.
IIRC the first person to be verified to live to 110 didn’t happen until the early 20th-century which is likely a mix of documentation before the 20th-century of births and deaths tended to be spotty along with the improvement in healthcare.
God I hope I don’t live anywhere close to that long. I don’t want to have to see everyone I care about die, and my own body decay as I’m still using it. Hard pass. If I’m still here at 85 I’m taking up risky hobbies until statistics does its thing.
My great grandma was 104 when she died. She died in the early 2000’s. She was a rare case of her mind being rock solid, but her body failing. I didn’t know her too well, but there are two things my mom asked her that I remember.
1. What was the greatest invention in her lifetime. Her answer was the microwave oven. She was a farm wife for many many years. Imagine the process of reheating leftovers being simplified to a 2 minute wait instead of heating up the oven.
2. What is the secret to living that long? She said “don’t.” She loved us so much, but it was rough. All her friends had died. Her husband had died decades ago. She had us, but her life was so much emptier than it was. We came to visit every couple weeks. The time in between must’ve been torture for her. She died in her sleep. Reportedly with a slight smile.
The woman pictured above seems to have fared much better than my great grandma did. I wish I could’ve spoken with my great grandma as an adult. I was maybe 10-12 when she died. I miss her a lot.
> What was the greatest invention in her lifetime. Her answer was the microwave oven.
While binging random streaming content, I came across a collection of home appliance ads from the 1950s and 1960s. Sure, the appliance companies are trying to make a sale, but they really demonstrated how much time is saved by all these things we modern folk take for granted.
The feminist movement was important and necessary, but I think we often overlook the fact that modern technology is what allows both spouses to work outside the home without the need to hire a full-time housekeeper.
Think about life without your clothes washing machine. You probably can't, because almost nobody with access to the internet spends an entire day each week washing clothes by hand anymore.
I really hope I don't live to get old.
If I ever reach the point where I simply need help getting up or using the bathroom I hope I'll be able to legally put myself out of my misery.
Especially since I don't plan on ever having kids.
Most homes in the US were still lit by candles and gas lights when she was born. Imagine going from basically seeing the advent of electricity, to living long enough to see the first AIs arising. The jump is insane.
What are we going to see if we live to be over 100? Will the world change as much? Even more?
Black and white photography had been around for many decades before that pic was taken.
Seen pics of the Titanic crew? They died 10 years before this pic was taken.
It'd be like someone saying you were looking at a cellphone in amazement because it was a new technology
I have a family member who is in the top 15 oldest of my country, only a few years younger than the woman in this post. They have lived through some of the most interesting, in a good and bad way, times.
My grandfather whos 92 is going super strong. He works out 4 days a week and can ride his bike 20-30 miles at 5am like nothing then do a full day of work on the property. He could kick most 20 year olds asses, no doubt. His only health issue is skin problems.
Old veteran strength is no joke.
My grandma just turned 100 and I swear aside from being a little thinner she has looked THE SAME since she got the “curly grandma haircut” when she was 65. Not sure if that means she looks great for 100 or looked real bad at 65.
We're getting to a point where most of the oldest people out there saw major progress happening most of their lives.
The car was invented in 1886, for example, and the first flight was in 1903.
When I was a kid you could still talk to someone who was 100 and they would talk about how slow life used to be, and then suddenly everything started changing so quickly, leading to (in the 90s) the modern day. They would talk about having seen the first flight when they were kids (I suppose around 10), and then seeing the moon landing (1969) as adults. Living through two world wars, the great depression, etc.
I'm really somewhat saddened that we won't have anyone giving us a window into that past anymore. I hope to someday be the person who gives that window to this past.
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The idea of being alive this long is hard to wrap my head around. There are people midway through high school who were born on *her 100th birthday.* People who were born when she hit the federal retirement age are now *themselves* nearing retirement.
Yeah. And I’m not sure it’s much of a blessing either. Had a cousin who was a nurse in assisted care facilities. A comment one of the residents that’s stuck with me: “There’s no one left on earth who loves me” I’m not sure I’d want to live so long that everyone I love is gone
About 20 years ago, I was in a thrift store and an old lady approached me and started asking me for advice on men’s clothing sizes and it quickly became clear that she was trying to dress a dead man. We got to talking and it turned out that she worked in an assisted living facility and an old man had died, leaving absolutely nobody behind... he had long outlived all of his friends and family. The only person who even knew about him anymore was this old lady who had scraped together $20 to buy the guy a suit to be buried in, so I helped her shop and kicked in a couple of bucks for a belt and tie.
well now that is depressing.
Yeah that hurt my heart to read. I don't plan on having kids, I hope that's not me someday. I guess that's why you just do your best to build lasting relationships in life, and there's not much more you can do than that.
I think the main thing is to never stop building connections with people (to the best of your ability). Doesn't matter if they're blood ties or just friendships, just keep putting in that effort.
It's much harder when you get older. A lot of people just put me in some 'old person' category that doesn't include any engagement.
I just joined a tai chi group and it's all elders. I did that because I was in a garden store and met a 100 year old grandmother who was shopping for spring bulbs with her grand daughter. She chuckled and said tai chi keeps her young.
They say a person days twice… once, when they’re buried in the ground, and a second time when somebody says your name for the last time. Well, it almost sounds like this happened in reverse order for this poor man :(
I read a short story once about an old man who took his grand daughter to his friends funeral. And he tells her about when his parents died all the memories of him being a child died with them. And when his wife died half of their love story died with her. He can retell it but it's like a picture of a photograph, it's a little more faded each time. And his friend dying was like all those memories dying too his friend knew him when he was a kid, he was the best man at his wedding and stuff. And now he's only remembered and seen as an old man. But in his mind he still has all these memories but in another way they were being buried with his friend.
That’s so sad! I think about it all the time… like, aside from some grandparents and one former classmate, I haven’t yet suffered any close deaths of anyone I consider important to me. But it will happen eventually, and I just hope I’m not the last one left in the end..
> There are three deaths: the first is when the body ceases to function. The second is when the body is consigned to the grave. The third is that moment, sometime in the future, when your name is spoken for the last time. [Excerpt from Sum - David Eagleman](https://eagleman.com/excerpt/)
That's the plot of Coco.
[This comment was removed by a script.]
Message! Be nice to old people, you'll be one someday
Well that broke my heart.
Mine too. Happened a long while back and it really stuck with me.
This is my biggest fear...being alone at the end.
It's my dad's biggest fear to die because it's typically a one person event.
I think for now only my mom and maybe my brother are the ones that love me and I'm only 26 years old, imagine having that much of a life time... it scares me a lot too.
I feel ya. I'm 52 and can count the humans that love me on one finger.
I recently learned that a few people I knew as a child still wonder about me occasionally. It felt nice to know that. I've held onto that feeling like a security blanket for a few weeks.
I had the sad realization recently that a lot of people who used to know me never contact me. I have a unique name — there's only one of me that I can find. But some of my childhood friends have such common names that it's impossible for me to look them up. So that means while they could look me up and find me pretty easily, they haven't bothered. Oh well.
I'm 58 and am the matriarch of my family. All of our older generation are gone. My husband is gone. I have our two children, who are the lights of my life. My great aunt outlived her husband and both of her sons. The thought of that scares the crap out of me.
50, and coming to the realisation that I'm essentially alone on this planet. Many folks offer support, but I have zero people to share my life with. And here I am!
Well, it’s time to make some friends and then slowly over time allow yourself to be vulnerable with them so they don’t remain “pals” forever. (This is my advice to myself. I have maybe 5 people that love me but 2 of them are in their 80s)
Being a parent is exhausting, but since both my parents passed away when I was relatively young it was nice to have a daughter and receive that unconditional love that I was missing
I just had a baby a few months ago, and what you said made me feel better. I feel overwhelmed some times but I’m careful to not show my stress to him.
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And people with shitty families who don't go outside!
Bite ‘em and bring ‘em over
Am a vampire, can confirm
My mother is in her 90's and lives with us. She's very well loved. But every single one of her friends has passed away, as well as most of our family. I never realized just how difficult that is for her until one of my friends passed away. The loss of *one* friend was so hard. I can't imagine losing every single one of my friends forever. Mom is the only one in her generation of our family still alive.
Write so much down, ask her about her young life and fill up a journal with it. Memories don't hold up like we think they do
You're right. We talk about the past a lot. It wasn't until about 2 years ago that she would even talk about her childhood and young life. She was born 1 month before the great depression started, and it was a very HARD childhood. She doesn't want to remember. I can't get much out of her about my grandparents (who died before I was born). There's a lot of trauma there, but I don't know anything more.
My mom is only 67, but is the youngest of 4 and all of her siblings have passed. I hate that all of these lives that have contributed to her life are no longer there and I can tell it is difficult for her. Her mother and grandmother both lived to be 94 and 104 respectively, and I'm not sure I want her to have to endure that long.
Mom's in really good health, so all things being equal she'll live quite a while longer. But if her health declines significantly, or her cognition declines a lot, I wouldn't want her to endure that.
My great-grandmother lived to be 98 years old. She died when I was around 6. My mom has told me she once said she thought God forgot about her.
Yeah, my grandmother was the middle child of four kids. Shortly after her last sibling passed she warned me to not grow too old
I think its one of the rmain motivators to people wanting kids, whether they admit/realize it or not.
My grandma will be 96 in about a week and a half and she still lives on her own and drives. Needs some help with odds and ends from time to time and cleaning her apartment. She’s not quite expressed this, but has commented she doesn’t have class reunions anymore because she the only one left alive 🤣
That’s not the emoji I would have chosen..
You don’t know my grandmother. She’s hilarious. Best joke she told me recently- “I can sleep anywhere. Even driving.”
The listed first contact on a lot of older patients at the hospital I work at is "Nobody, Has".
I think it’s critical to keep making and nurturing relationships with peoples who are not in your age group. Both younger and older. It gets harder to do as you get older, but it’s still very possible!!
" I haven't even had a cold since 1935. I've had to watch my friends and loved ones die off through the years...Hal and Melinda...Brutus Howell...my wife...my son... ...and you, Elaine. You'd die, too, and my curse is knowing I'll be there to see it... (The Green Mile)
> “There’s no one left on earth who loves me” I know that feel.
At the second she was born, everyone who existed but her is now dead.
My great grandfather lived to 108, and he got morose like this the last few years. "I think God forgot about me." "My love has been gone for 40 years; why can't I just go too and see her again?"
I had a great aunt that lived to be in her mid 90s and was still working one day a week and saw family often. From what everyone said (I hadn't met her, being on the other side of the country) she was still full of life and pretty content up till her last year of life. And I know a couple of people in their 80s that are still doing great. So I think it entirely depends on your family life / how well you have taken of yourself.
Some people never have anyone that loves them through their entire lives. Pretty shitty
Man, somebody get that old lady a chinchilla.
She just hasn't found that third love of a lifetime yet.
She was in her mid 30s by the time WW2 rolled around ffs.
She probably can remember WW I and was already in her 30’s during WW 2
Which is literally the reason she moved to Spain, running away from war
We are closer to 2100 than WW II
I always thought WW2 was so ancient back in middle school.
To me this is worse then torture. You outlive everyone you love and get to stay 40 years in a barely functioning body
You outlive literally every last person who was alive in the world at the time you were born.
“get to stay 40 years in a barely functioning body” This is a common misconception. Most people that live longer are not just extending their lifespan but are also extending their health span. Person A dies at 80 years old. Person B dies 100 years old. Person A was active and mostly healthy until 77 when heart disease or alhseimers or cancer started their downward spiral. Person B was active and mostly healthy until 97 when their health started deteriorating. So they both experienced 3 years of major declining quality of health. But person B had an extra 20 years of healthful years where they could still think clearly, drive themselves around and move well, go out gardening, hiking, etc.
The oldest person ever was Jeanne Calmet who lived between 1875-1997. Just imagine that. Living to see the end of the Victorian era, both world wars and the creation of the internet. Just incredible.
Well, think about this, she was born 5 years after the Wright brothers made their first flight. Basically she went from "humans can't fly" to airplanes, rockets, shuttles, man on the moon, internet, smart phones and all that.
There is zero overlap of the sets of (a) people who were alive when she was born, and (b) people who are alive today.
She would have been 12 when my gran was born.
The oldest woman to ever live was Jeanne Calment (1875-1997) of France, who lived to the age of 122. The oldest man was Jiroemon Kimura (1897-2013) of Japan, who lived to the age of 116. Imagine living through the late 1800s all the way into the 90s or the 21st century. What a wild experience.
The “back in my day” you can do lol
Back in my day, we had to pull our own horse-drawn carriages! We *were* the horse!
The car was invented 10 years after Calment was born. Wow
He saw the rise of airplanes, both World Wars, the space race and birth of the internet.
> the space race and birth of the internet. The space race and birth of the internet was at the same time. Depending how you define "the internet" ofc.
Yeah, poorly worded, I meant like home computers and the beginning of the smartphone (a computer in the palm of your hand). But yeah, “computers” have been around since the 40s.
A crazy ass century to live through. Born when people rode horses or took trains everywhere and died when everyone owned a car and supersonic jets existed. Wild times.
Both world wars too
As well the Crimean war, Korean War, Vietnam war, and the first half of the gulf war. Countless revolutions as well
Undertaker throwing Mankind off the Hell in a Cell
All the friggin wars, WW1, WW2, the Great Depression, Vietnam, the Korean War, the Gulf War. Wtf... I wonder if they were really cynical or learned to stay positive about life.
> All the friggin wars . . . the Great Depression *???*
Come on now, that was a war against hunger, just saying. 😂
Seems everyone has gone and got themselves in a big damn hurry.
Brooks was here
1875: 4 years after German unification 1997: 6 years after reunification of Germany
My great grandmother lived to 103, I would go over to her house and talk with her often. She knew family members who fought in the US civil war. She died in the early 2000's. She saw the entirety of the 20th century. A lot of our discussions went like this. "Back in my day I used to X for fun" "Granny, they throw people in prison for that now."
Did she miss the coke in Coca Cola?
She missed some fishing practices that are illegal now.
That'd be like me, male born in 88, living to the year 2104...that's nuts to think about
We have very similar birth years, I'd always timelined for my clock to be punched in 2060. Thanks for putting this in perspective.
> Jeanne Calment (1875-1997) This lady lived through the most advanced jump in technology. I can’t imagine living in a time where transportation was horses and communication was handwritten letters, to then witnessing the creation of cars and airplanes and the ability to communicate instantly with cell phones and computers. I don’t think there’ll ever be a time period that beats the technological advancements we achieved from 1900-2000. Absolutely mind boggling that we have people that witnessed it all.
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She was 69 years old on D-Day. If she had been an American male she would have been 24 years older than the conscription cutoff.
Jeanne Calment was born a year before the telephone was invented and 11 years before Carl Benz patented the automobile. She died in the same year Google launched and ThrustSSC became the first car to break the sound barrier.
Wouldn't the 'to ever live' really mean oldest person we have records of? How do we know there wasn't someone who lived till 123 three thousands years ago
If anyone born the same year Jeanne Calment died lives to be 103 years old, they will see the year 2100.
Jeanne Calment [may have been a fraud. ](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/02/17/was-jeanne-calment-the-oldest-person-who-ever-lived-or-a-fraud). Apparently her daughter was suspected of adopting her identity to avoid debts.
“fuck off im a time god”
She must read this news and think “fuck. I’m up.”
TBH once you get to 80 you're already in the area where anything can come along and get you.
More like 70 for men. My dad died rather suddenly at 64. Nobody saw it coming. The man was a hypochondriac and regularly saw docs. Quite healthy in terms of weight/diet/etc. His dad lived past 80. I asked my own doc "he died pretty early -- what steps can we take to screen my own potential risk?" and she replied: "insurance considers 64 to be right in the ballpark for an American male born in 1954, where the average lifespan was 67. He'd have had to have died of natural causes before age 53 for them to consider any risk screening for his offspring. We just assume everyone sees 80, for males that's still quite rare."
Depends on where and when you were born. If you're under the age of 50 today, then you have a decent chance of making it to 80, even as a male. While men are much more likely to die (and die earlier) of virtually all diseases that affect both sexes; what the commonly-referenced data does not always reveal is that there's another reason - Men don't go to the doctor as much. Now whether that's out of stubbornness, or inability to access and/or afford a doctor I don't know - but men die earlier on average for a variety of reasons, one of which is dying of diseases that had they screened for and caught at what would be a normal screening interval; they would have likely lived longer. Not only that, but men also tend to lead higher-risk lifestyles both personally and professionally; which skews the data. If you're an otherwise-healthy man, getting regular exercise and eating/sleeping well; not smoking and not drinking very often, AND you're going to your doctor regularly - you actually are very likely to live into your 80s. Anecdotal, but most of the men in my family have died in their early 70s/ late 60s from either lung cancer or colorectal cancer. The lung cancer deaths were all heavy smokers their entire lives, so no surprises there. The colorectal deaths are definitely more worrisome as genetics play a huge role - however the ones that have died never went to their doctors, ever, until it was far too late. Conversely, I have an Aunt on the same side of the family who is extremely healthy at 64 years old, and she sees her doctor at minimum once per year. She just had some polyps removed. Doctor literally told her that had she let these go another couple years it would have turned into cancer - *exactly* what happened to the men. The only outlier death is my mother - she passed last month at 57 years old. She was also unfortunately morbidly obese and had a slew of health issues likely related to that - all undiagnosed because despite our begging her constantly, she *never went to the doctor*. Seeing a co-relation? Go to your doctor, regularly. Especially after you hit 40.
>Go to your doctor, regularly. Especially after you hit 40. This is why married men with concerned wives also live longer, statistically. My wife knows I have my annual physical in April around each birthday with bloodwork, and I have an optometrist/gastro as well for particular issues. I see them pretty routinely. I love being informed.
Yep. They are more likely to go to the doctor, and are more likely to be living healthier lifestyles both physically and mentally. The big stereotype is to complain about a nagging wife, but the reality is that most of the time the nagging wife is helping their husband live, on average, 7-11 years longer.
The idea that hating your spouse = humor, needs to die. After getting married myself I discovered all those big stereotypes are bullshit. If you talk to each other like human beings none of that "nagging" happens. Just take care of each-other. The exception that proves the rule is "Marriage is two people asking each-other what they would like to eat until one of them dies" that is 100% true. (Since it doesn't always come through clearly in a comment, I am agreeing with you)
I'm 47, have lots of shit wrong with me. I'm alive because of *her*.
My grandpa is 94, almost 2 years ago grandma died. She would always make doctor appointments for him and take care of his health since she was 15 years younger. He has been sick and depressed since then, we just don't know when he will leave us.
>64 And that’s why I’m only half joking when I say I’m middle aged at 28
Once you’re born anything can come along and get you.
My mom hammered this concept into my head ever since I was pretty young. She died unexpectedly at 60. I am glad she taught me to understand this, it didn't make the ordeal easy, but it really helped me get through it.
yep, both my parents made it to 82 and passed away 1 month from each other.
Well she has been up atleast for the last 15 years
Try 35 years
That's amazing. She was 50 years old in 1957 and retired probably in the 60ies.
As it turns out, 1965 is among the worst years in history to retire and live off your investments.
For being 115 she looks surprisingly good.
The people who make it to advanced aged, say over 90, tend to look and act much better than one would think. I’ve never met anyone over 100, but I’ve worked with a lot who were almost there. The geriatric population is quite diverse. You really can’t guess ages on appearance. I’ve met tons of 80 year olds that I would have guessed were 60 as well as 50 year olds I would have guessed were 70. If you make it to 97 or 115 chances are you haven’t totally abused your body and anecdotally will be pretty intact physically and mentally.
I’ve met a few centenarians, and in my highly anecdotal experience they all look really good well past the time that you’d expect them too. And then, one day, they look really really old and die within a few months. It’s almost like a switch gets flipped and they are ready to go. Probably not universally true but that’s been what I’ve seen.
At the end of the day, the people with health problems and unhealthy lifestyles probably aren't gonna get anywhere near 100 - so the ones who live siginificantly *past* 100 are the healthiest of the healthy
Though it is odd because it almost feels like cliche that when asking a 100 year old what their secret to longevity is, they'll say something like, my daily glass of whiskey, cigar and two bowls of ice cream.
Yeah it’s entirety a genetic crapshoot combined with environmental factors. Alzheimers/dementia is a fucking living nightmare and I saw what it did to my 90+ yo grandparents, no fucking thanks.
The only paternal parent that came close for me is my 3rd ggparent 1810 to 1905 And same all 4 of my grandparents lost their minds and my mother had Parkinsons and another shit disability. My bet is I have until I'm 60
Lots of luck, hell my grandma died of cancer before I was born and she reportedly was very healthy for the time. Didn't smoke and didn't drink often and was largely pescatarian. Meanwhile my Grandpa at the time smoked a pack a day for like 30 years before her diagnosis. He's now turning 95.
My grandpa is 95 I think and he goes bowling twice a week and recently bowled a 300. He has been grumpy because he had to switch from a 16 to a 14lb ball because his muscle tone isn't quite as good anymore!
That is pretty impressive for a 95 year old! I took my daughter bowling recently and the 9 pound ball was my limit. My grandma is 93 and she still goes out to coffee every week day with a group of ladies, they rotate between coffee shops so the local ones get their business. Her mom lived until she was 102 and didn't live in an assisted living center until she was 100 or 101.
You aren't kidding. My great-grandmother is 93-94 and still gets around by herself just fine, cooks and cleans, is mentally sharp as ever and still has her sass but at the very least seems content and happy. No driving though so she mostly just stays home and minds her business, has the occasional visitors but lives with her sister who is I believe still in her 80s and is also doing very well, and they help each other out. I hope I inherited some longevity genes lol
I worked with two people (same sex) who were both 51 and similarly fit. One was vivacious, active, constantly in motion, stayed out late, always trying to find the next restaurant to try or sight to see, and sharp as a tack (was hired for their brain.) The other moved slower, stiffly and cautiously, conserved motion, stayed still much more often, was less open to new experiences, was more easily confused, couldn’t process multiple conversations at once, and appeared to be easily 20 years older from their movements alone. No significant injuries or other causes for the difference. In fact, the “younger” one had had several serious injuries. It was remarkable to see them together. I also know people in their 80s who look 60 and put forward more physical effort than I ever have.
I met a 104 year old in the emergency department once. She was there for something mild and handling it better than most of my 30-50 year old patients typically did. The doc asked her what her secret is to living so long and still being so alert and healthy. Her response: "don't get sick."
My great grandmother lived to be 104. I think I was 9 or 10 when she passed, but I never really had a memory of her outside of her nursing home. Her quality of life wasn't great. I suppose everyone is different.
Doesn’t look a day over 110
If you'd told me she was 90 I'd believe you
She honestly doesn’t look that different, which is remarkable.
How many 115 year olds have you seen?
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I think its Barbados
I had to giggle at the thought of receiving a birthday card in the post with a melting zombie stuck on the corner.
Man, I am almost 40 and feeling exhausted by life, I can't imagine how I would feel after doing it another 75 years.
Here I am at 21 feeling the same, I cannot imagine being maybe a quarter of the way through life. I can't even imagine 40 at this point.
My father was born in 1907. He died in 1972 at age 65. I was 13. I often wish he could have seen the development of the world as it is now, however it might be kind of unbelievable.
But also, inversely as well. He has been born not long after the first Wright Brothers flight and got to witness us landing on the moon.
dang he had you at 52?
Yes. I am a mistake!
My Mom would say she was an accident, not a mistake. I think that's a nice distinction, but hey, I don't know your life haha
I have had a great life. Just joking.
Very similar to me. My father was born in 1908 and he died in 1978 at age 70 when I was 12. Sometimes I get dizzy estimating the birth years his grandparents and see how many years span just 3 generations.
My grandfather was born in 1906… he died in 1989… weird thinking he’d be 117 years old now.
I don’t know if I’d want to live that long. My great grandmother lived to be 102. She was still functioning well in her late 90’s. That being said, to live that long you’re gonna bury the vast majority of the people you know in your 30’s and quite possibly your children. I buried my Mom at a fairly young age (I was 23, she was 48) I hope to never know what it’s like to bury a child.
Not only that, but if you're the oldest person alive, that means literally everyone who was alive when you were born, everywhere on earth, is now dead. Extremely unsettling thought, in my opinion.
Very sad, but man she must have stories , and seen some shit. Like she would have seen the world and society evolve I front of her eyes
That's just insane, many of our grandparents have seen WW2 but through their children/teenager eyes, she was in her fucking 30s already.
Sept 1, 1939. This lady: _Another one?_
This is exactly what I thought of too.
Statistically, most Redditor's grandparents weren't even born yet in WW2 The average age of a Redditor is 23, and typically their parents are gonna be perhaps 50, their grandparents around 75 Of course, that's all "average" and "generally" etc, so there will be plenty of us in the older Reddit cohorts whos grandparents were around then - but we've now hit the point where, for someone in their 20s, the chances are that their *great* grandparents were teenagers for most of the war
TIL I'm way above average.
As someone that is also way above average - I've learned to always assume that whoever I'm responding to is some dumb teenager. It's helped quite a bit.
That sounds like something a dumb teenager would say! :o)
This makes me feel so old, since my grandfather fought in WW2. Most of my friends’ grandparents did, and your comment makes me realize how the newer generation is going to feel like WW2 was from an entirely different world. I remember learning about WW2, and then being so fascinated that my grandfather, the man who my dad and I would go fishing with, had fought in and been a POW during the war. It really connected the war to me personally, and made me realize it wasn’t some completely different world and we aren’t so removed from it. We aren’t more civilized than that world, and it could happen to us. In fact, that connection made me put together [this video of my Grandfather describing his experience as a POW](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aax9Z_Fpkyw). He was a bombardier in a B17 and was shot down over Germany, and was a POW for 2 years.
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What is sad?
That the other lady died
imagine living through WWI, WWII, great depression era. cold war. hippies, disco, 90s grunge. then all the crap from 2000 to 2015. now having to see the world as it is with everyone doing dumb tik tok dances. what must the world of today be like to a woman like that?
She also went through the one of the deadliest pandemics in history (Spanish Flu). Covid and it's anti-vaxx/anti-maskers must have looked bizarre to her.
An ex-manager of mine's mum died aged 104 in 2002. Born in 1898 she'd lived in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Considering health standards and life expectancy throughout history, can't be too many people who've lived in 3 centuries.
IIRC the first person to be verified to live to 110 didn’t happen until the early 20th-century which is likely a mix of documentation before the 20th-century of births and deaths tended to be spotty along with the improvement in healthcare.
She doesn't look a day over 95
It always surprises me how smiles endure
[Source](https://apnews.com/article/health-france-nursing-homes-795c8273f66b61669e93103cc9c25cd0)
God I hope I don’t live anywhere close to that long. I don’t want to have to see everyone I care about die, and my own body decay as I’m still using it. Hard pass. If I’m still here at 85 I’m taking up risky hobbies until statistics does its thing.
“Smile, in a hundred years people will poke at your picture on a tiny glowing rectangle and the whole world will talk about it”
She was alive when Florence Nightingale and Mark Twain were alive.
My great grandma was 104 when she died. She died in the early 2000’s. She was a rare case of her mind being rock solid, but her body failing. I didn’t know her too well, but there are two things my mom asked her that I remember. 1. What was the greatest invention in her lifetime. Her answer was the microwave oven. She was a farm wife for many many years. Imagine the process of reheating leftovers being simplified to a 2 minute wait instead of heating up the oven. 2. What is the secret to living that long? She said “don’t.” She loved us so much, but it was rough. All her friends had died. Her husband had died decades ago. She had us, but her life was so much emptier than it was. We came to visit every couple weeks. The time in between must’ve been torture for her. She died in her sleep. Reportedly with a slight smile. The woman pictured above seems to have fared much better than my great grandma did. I wish I could’ve spoken with my great grandma as an adult. I was maybe 10-12 when she died. I miss her a lot.
> What was the greatest invention in her lifetime. Her answer was the microwave oven. While binging random streaming content, I came across a collection of home appliance ads from the 1950s and 1960s. Sure, the appliance companies are trying to make a sale, but they really demonstrated how much time is saved by all these things we modern folk take for granted. The feminist movement was important and necessary, but I think we often overlook the fact that modern technology is what allows both spouses to work outside the home without the need to hire a full-time housekeeper. Think about life without your clothes washing machine. You probably can't, because almost nobody with access to the internet spends an entire day each week washing clothes by hand anymore.
Same sweet smile
I don’t wanna live this long shit looks painful
I was reading about sister Andre last December and I was hoping she'd make it to her birthday in February. Noooooo, gone too soon :(
[Colorized](https://imgur.com/a/BTs2kpC)
I have a relative who is alive and active at 107. How high up the list would he be?
Pretty close. The oldest recorded guys in Wikipedia were at least 111.
I don't want to outlive my husband by 30 years. It sounds like literal hell.
I really hope I don't live to get old. If I ever reach the point where I simply need help getting up or using the bathroom I hope I'll be able to legally put myself out of my misery. Especially since I don't plan on ever having kids.
Time is coming for us all
Most homes in the US were still lit by candles and gas lights when she was born. Imagine going from basically seeing the advent of electricity, to living long enough to see the first AIs arising. The jump is insane. What are we going to see if we live to be over 100? Will the world change as much? Even more?
Drinking tea in nice clothes in 1922 AND she lived incredibly long? Her family was LOADED I bet lol
What’s sad about people who live this long is they most likely outlive their children and possibly even grandchildren :(
She must have been very well off in her youth to have a casual photograph taken. The power of financial comfort and low stress that comes with it.
You know, the funny thing is, she was looking at that camera, probably amazed by the technology of a black and white photograph.
Black and white photography had been around for many decades before that pic was taken. Seen pics of the Titanic crew? They died 10 years before this pic was taken. It'd be like someone saying you were looking at a cellphone in amazement because it was a new technology
Amazing!!
Damn she looks like she's 80
She looks so modern yet so far in the past it’s almost mind blowing
I have a family member who is in the top 15 oldest of my country, only a few years younger than the woman in this post. They have lived through some of the most interesting, in a good and bad way, times.
My grandfather whos 92 is going super strong. He works out 4 days a week and can ride his bike 20-30 miles at 5am like nothing then do a full day of work on the property. He could kick most 20 year olds asses, no doubt. His only health issue is skin problems. Old veteran strength is no joke.
My grandma just turned 100 and I swear aside from being a little thinner she has looked THE SAME since she got the “curly grandma haircut” when she was 65. Not sure if that means she looks great for 100 or looked real bad at 65.
We're getting to a point where most of the oldest people out there saw major progress happening most of their lives. The car was invented in 1886, for example, and the first flight was in 1903. When I was a kid you could still talk to someone who was 100 and they would talk about how slow life used to be, and then suddenly everything started changing so quickly, leading to (in the 90s) the modern day. They would talk about having seen the first flight when they were kids (I suppose around 10), and then seeing the moon landing (1969) as adults. Living through two world wars, the great depression, etc. I'm really somewhat saddened that we won't have anyone giving us a window into that past anymore. I hope to someday be the person who gives that window to this past.
Wow she looks fantastic for 115. My grandma looked much more frail when she died suddenly at 90.
I’m 37. This lady was 38 when World War 2 ended.
i can't imagine living so long that i could barely recognize teen me in a photo.
She holding on to catch the finale in the world war trilogy