If I Live to Be 100: Lessons from the Centenarians

Reviewed by Elaine Williams

In these pages, you will meet fourteen centenarians-people who have lived one hundred years or more. You will also meet the author/interviewer Neenah Ellis, who found that her motives for interviewing "old folks" changed as she became more experienced. She started with questions about their reactions to historical events, then gave those up for questions on the meaning of life. Finally, she decided just to have conversations with these people instead of formal interviews, and she found herself actually entering their lives. She ate fried chicken with Louisiana Hines, whose grandparents were slaves. She drove around Detroit with 101-year-old Ruth Ellis, who often takes meals to her much-younger neighbors who can't get out anymore. She attended a session with Professor Abraham Goldstein, who was still tutoring college students at the time the book was written. He was 103.

These people are fascinating. One of them is quoted as saying, "Honey, they just want to know me 'cause I'm a hundred." I think that's partially true. These very interesting people become magnets for publicity once they achieved extreme old age. But one thing I noticed about them was that they all stayed involved with life after making many contributions in their younger and middle years. In other words, most of them did not retire from life in any way.

Ms. Ellis learned a lot about interviewing people as she went along. She learned to stay out of the conversation and listen. She changed her perceptions of "old people." She began to see hope in aging instead of only a growing series of losses. There are some sad stories included, such as that of Rochelle, who suffers from dementia and said, "My mind is going. I can sense it." But so many of the stories are inspiring. Just a few examples: Anna Wilmot, age 100. Skinny dips "when it's foggy and no fishermen are around." Gilbert Hill - still married to the same woman after eighty years Roy Stamper - married his fourth wife at age 103. Talk about optimism. Margaret Rawson - published a book on dyslexia at age 96. Her great-great-grandfather was a colonel in George Washington's army.

Neenah Ellis reveals her own thoughts, hopes, and fears about growing old. She tries to find an explanation for why she felt such a close connection with so many of those she interviewed. Ellis includes an interview with a psychologist, Dr. Thomas Lewis, who tells her his compelling theory of why we instantly "hit it off" with some people and not others. I found this to be very interesting.

I had the pleasure of interviewing a ninety-eight-year-old man from Lynchburg as part of a project for the Lynchburg Historical Society. As he reminisced about the first car in Lynchburg and playing marbles in the middle of the street, I felt that I had gained access to a fount of wisdom, but I didn't know how to ask the right questions. Reading this book inspires me to practice until I, too, can get it right.

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