When life is full and rich at 100

A few find love again; one still goes skinny-dipping. Some centenary continue to enjoy happy lives until they have to go

WHAT would you do if your 103-year-old Dad decided he wanted to get married again?

I happened to read this interesting article and I was wondering what will life be when you live to a ripe old age of 100, something that should be seen as a bliss or a curse?

What happens when everyone beside you has moved on and you are the only one left?

There are centenarians who live independently, fix their own meals, paint their fingernails, tend their gardens, go out with friends.

You don't expect the romance you do when you're 20. The passion is calmed down considerably. It's just real love and there's nothing to complicate it when you are 100 years of age. You just love the companionship of a relationship with another person that loves you.

Centenarians are something else. And there are more of them than ever before, as people live longer than ever.

As Singapore ages, many of us will come to know people who live to be 100, and some of us will get there ourselves.

Already, the number of 'old-old' - those who are over 85 - has grown sharply.

In 1999, there were 16,000 people aged 85 and over - six times more than in 1970 - and there were 150 centenarians, four-fifths of them women.

By 2020, we're projected to see 33,600 old-old and, most likely, the number of centenarians will be up too.

It won't be a bleak old-old age for everyone. Like the people in Neenah Ellis' book, some will lead rich, full lives till the day they breathe their last, with helpers and new friends around them, if not family.

A Boston-based study of centenarians has found that it is not true that the older you get, the sicker you become.

Instead, the New England Centenarian Study found, this group shows that 'the older you get, the healthier you've been'.

Although the centenarians studied since 1994 varied widely in terms of education, socio-economic status, religion, ethnicity and diet, they did share some characteristics.

Among them: Few centenarians are obese, the men are almost always lean; it's rare to find heavy smokers in this group; they handle stress better than most people; they appear to avoid other age-related illnesses like dementia and Alzheimer's disease; and exceptional longevity does run in some families.

It must make you stop and think.

I have yet to meet a centenarian, though I have come close. My distant cousin's Dad was still taking the bus from Yio Chu Kang to Orchard Road when he was in his 90s.

Plans for his 100th birthday were under way when he died, and what a pity because he would have loved a party.

Perhaps what the world needs is to realise that sex is 'for procreation, not recreation'. So if you're not making babies, don't do it.

Hmmm, I thought. Never scoff at wisdom from the ages.

Anyway, after reading Neenah Ellis' book, I went to the website www.ifilivetobe100.com and found the faces and voices of the centenarians she had interviewed.

They were lovely to behold, and it seemed that you only need to cross that 100-year mark for your ageless spirit to shine through radiantly.

As for that bit about sex, let's think about it a little more.