How Long Do You Really Want To Live?

By Rich Kozlovich

An article appeared about a Peruvian woman, Taipe Mendoza, who is 116 years old, and only three months younger than, “Misao Okawa, who is the world's oldest person according to Guinness World Records and the US-based Gerontology Research Group.”

When interviewed she said, "I am not of the past century, young man, but the other one... I am very old," she told an official accompanying her to cash the first check of a retirement program for seniors living in extreme poverty.   She went on to say; "My secret to longevity is a natural diet: I always ate potatoes, goat meat, sheep milk, goat cheese and beans…..Everything I cook comes from my garden. I never had canned soft drinks.”

In her very long life never left her village living in crushing poverty.  Poverty made even more difficult when she became a widow with nine children.   Her one wish is that she “still had teeth”.   With her new pension she will receive free medical care and about ninety dollars a month, which is about ten times smaller than the approximately $10,000 a year average income in Peru, which numbers 42 on the world’s economic list, clearly demonstrating how seriously poor so many people are in the world.  There are 196 countries in the world, which means 154 countries have an even poorer economy than Peru.     

There are a couple of reasons I posted this. 

First, I marvel that reporters keep asking people to what they credit their long lives.  In the early 70’s there was a group in Russia that had, and probably still do, more than a normal number of centenarians and those living into their 90’s.  They thought it was because they ate little and drank a lot of tea. In the 1960’s I read of an old black man who was born a slave and was 104 years old.  He ran a little corner convenience store selling candy, beer, pop, cigarettes, etc.  His view for his longevity was he drank a lot, smoked a lot and ate a lot of candy bars.  A few years ago a woman credited living over a hundred to the fact she never drank, smoked or had sex in her entire life.  Let's face it - these people don't have a clue why they're living this long.  It's in the genes.  There's nothing like a good set of genes. 

Secondly, I think it would be wise for us to realize how good we have it here.  One woman noted her 86 year old wealthy mother looked ‘celebrity’ gorgeous, living the good life in Palm Beach, Florida. Paraphrasing her she points out living with wealth and comfort to 86 was far better than living in squalor, misery, suffering and poverty until 116.   Hard to find a great deal of fault in that kind of thinking! My first thought when I started to read the article was how sorry I was she was still living.   Old age - and extreme old age isn’t a blessing in most cases.  It’s extended suffering!  Especially when you see your children passing before you!  She has only three of her ten children still living.   No parent wants to see their children die before them!