‘No One Wants To Be Old’: How To Put The ‘Non-Age’ in Nonagenerian
By Sharon Jayson, Kaiser Health News
June 26, 2017
“Wilhelmina Delco learned to swim at 80. Harold Berman is in his 67th year practicing law. Mildred Walston spent 76 years on the job at a candy company. And brothers Joe and Warren Barger are finding new spots in their respective homes for the gold medals they’ve just earned in track-and-field events at the National Senior Games.
These octogenarians and nonagenarians may not be widely known outside their local communities, but just as their more famous peers — think Carl Reiner, Betty White, Dr. Ruth (Westheimer) or Tony Bennett — the thread that binds them is not the year on their birth certificate but the way they live.
‘Age shouldn’t be a reason to slow down,’ said Joe Barger, 91, of Austin, Texas.
It never hurts to have longevity in your genes and few chronic health problems, but mindset plays a role in how people age, experts say. Some older adults have been termed ‘superagers’ for mental acuity despite their years because the typical age-related decline in brain volume is much slower.”