By Gretchen Tarrant
Nov. 17, 2023
Good genes may be a big piece of the longevity puzzle, but there are some strategies that seem to help people maintain vitality later in life. Wall Street Journal readers shared their own and loved ones’ stories about reaching and surpassing the age of 95, which would put them in just 0.2% of today’s population, according to the Census Bureau.
Below, their advice on living long and well.
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Be adventurous
At 102 years old, Conbert Benneck of Dallas isn’t sure about the key to his long life, but he suspects it’s his adventurous spirit.
Benneck’s propensity for adventure began in his teenage years, when he rode his bicycle more than 90 miles through Germany. After World War II broke out, Benneck joined the U.S. Army. His company landed in Normandy shortly after D-Day.
Once his active duty ended, Benneck completed his engineering degree at the University of Denver and went on to work as a field engineer for Sperry Gyroscope. His job took him all over the world. When he left that company in 1956, he spent six months skiing and driving a sports car around Europe. His adventurous spirit again paid off by the time he reached Innsbruck, Austria, he recalled:
“[I] met my future wife in a wine cellar on the Maria Theresa Strasse.”
Stay open to connection
Researchers have found that social connection is key to longevity. But those with the longest lifespans often outlive many of their friends and even family members, making it difficult to maintain a vibrant social life.
Sarah Miriam Netting outlived many of her friends, recalled her great-niece Katharine Hunt of Okemos, Mich. “My Aunt Miriam lived to be 101. My mother once remarked that the people Aunt Miriam loved kept dying on her.” But her great-aunt had a unique approach to loss, Hunt said. “She kept finding new people to love.”
Take care of your mind
Cognitive health is closely associated with lifespan. Some people make a special effort to exercise their minds in later years.
Golde Nash was always diligent about staying mentally active, her son Mitchell Nash of Longmont, Colo., recalled. Golde Nash rarely missed the New York Times crossword. She took care to complete them—in ink—each day.
She also was a habitual meditator, a practice she picked up during the second half of her life, and she often taught meditation in the communities she was a part of. Meditation, her son said, was one of the “tangible things she did to live long and well.” She died in September 2019, at age 99.
Don’t slow down
An active lifestyle includes more than just fitness. For many individuals in the oldest age brackets, it can mean staying engaged in the things that keep their lives full.
For Katharine Coventry, that meant renewing her driver’s license at the age of 100. Coventry drove herself to the appointment with her son, William Wahl, in tow.
She approached most of her life with the same sense of determination, her son said.
“She lived in Duluth, Minn., where you had to be robust to [withstand] the weather,” he said.
In her late 80s, Wahl said, she left a hair appointment to find a foot of new snow on the ground. She walked home anyway.
Coventry died in December 2016, at age 104.
Live with grit
Perseverance is one of the keys to longevity, said Emily Bott of Maui, Hawaii. At age 101, Bott said that she is “very curious” and “tends to be tenacious (my daughter Aimee calls it ‘grit’).”
Bott has held a variety of roles throughout her life, including working as a radio station “traffic girl,” a substitute teacher in high school, a volunteer at Maui’s community medical center and a columnist for a local paper.
One job that sticks out in her memory was working as a producer of children’s theater shows. A native of St. Louis, she was sent to small towns throughout the Northeast to fulfill the company’s contracts.
“I believe I produced three shows in New England towns before taking the bus back to St. Louis,” Bott recalled. “Once every couple of years I think, ‘If I survived that job, nothing can kill me.’”
Celebrate getting older
While some of us lament birthdays once we reach a certain age, Dorothy Geraldine “Gerri” Durham Harris of Raleigh, N.C., never missed a chance to celebrate hers.
Alongside her daughter, Dorothy Bandier of New York, she marked her 91st birthday with a trip to Russia, her 95th birthday with a trip to Budapest, Vienna and Prague, and her 101st birthday with a 1,400-mile road trip to visit the summer home of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
When she turned 107, she organized her own birthday luncheon. “She even called the 30 or so guests and planned the menu,” Bandier said. “I only did the flowers and the seating.”
Harris died five months later in March 2022.
Nurture your passions
For Hazel Zipperer of Valdosta, Ga., continuing to pursue the things she loved helped her maintain vitality later in life, said her friend Leigh Amiot, also of Valdosta.
Zipperer was an avid gardener and worked hard in her yard into her 90s, Amiot recalled.
“She and I shared a love of gardening. She gave me five amaryllis bulbs, which still come up each year. She also gave me a pink blooming tea rose, and shortly after her death, it put on a beautiful show,” Amiot said.
Zipperer had another great love—baseball. She followed the Atlanta Braves religiously until her death in August 2023, at age 100.
Don’t take life too seriously
A sense of humor helps us confront life’s challenges, one 2016 study found.
Emily Warner of Birmingham, Ala., was always upbeat, her grandson William McGowin said. “She always had a funny, sometimes slightly off-color joke,” he recalled.
In her final hours, she asked the priest to make her a scotch and soda, McGowin said. When he inquired if she needed anything else, she replied, “Yes, I’d like another one.”
Warner died in April 2005, at age 101.
Make plans for the future
Envisioning the future can help to promote healthy aging, according to a 2018 study. Betty McDonald of Del Mar, Calif., noticed that her grandfather, Michael Boudos, of Chicago was always looking ahead.
“He got up every morning with a project in mind,” McDonald said. “He made plans and decisions as though there were no end to life.”
Boudos insisted on buying a house in his 80s, with the intent to keep it for 10 to 15 years, he told his family. He made good on that plan, living to be 101 years old, McDonald recalled.
“When Social Security came to the door to verify his existence, my mother said, ‘Ask him yourself; he’s at the kitchen table.’”
—Alex Janin contributed to this article.
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