Helen was born in ‘96 – not in 1996 but in 1896! She turned 105 years old this year. A few years ago, at age 103, she married Bill who is some twenty years her junior. Helen and Bill live in a retirement home near Chicago.

Helen is clear-minded, intelligent, and sharp-witted. She doesn’t get around as well as she used to when she was only age 80 or 90, but she stays active and gets out when she can with Bill’s help.

During a conference recently, I listened to her talk about the changes she has witnessed during her lifetime. She was fascinating as she talked for over twenty minutes without notes or aids.

When she was about 7 years old she remembers her father telling her about two men in North Carolina who built a motor-powered contraption which lifted them up into the air. She thought it marvelous that these men could “fly” like a bird.

One day her father went to town and brought back a mysterious box. It had knobs on it which turned round and round. Her father turned one of the knobs and Helen heard a “voice” come from inside the box. It was her first radio.

While living in California when she was only 10, she remembers the earth “bouncing and shaking” her while she lay in bed. Her mother told her it was an earthquake and that some people might have been hurt. In San Francisco, thousands of people were injured or died from the great earthquake of 1906.

Helen enrolled in College in 1914. The Great War was beginning to take shape in Europe. By late 1917 she had almost finished her College education when an armistice was declared and the Great War was over.

There was a song the Americans sang as the United States entered the War that year. She asked Bill if he remembered it. “No, I was only 4 years old at the time,” was his dead-pan reply. But he did remember it and sang a few bars in his deep baritone voice, “Over there, over there, send the word, send the word, over there. That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming ... over there.”

During their discussion of historical events they had experienced, such as the “Roaring 20’s,” the Great Depression, and World War II, I couldn’t help but wonder how they had managed to age so successfully. We all want to live a long, productive, and meaningful life but we want our later years to be lived in good health with mental alertness, just as Helen and Bill have.

At 105 years old, Helen had been asked hundreds of times about her secret to long life. She really didn’t have one, except that she had always kept a positive attitude, stayed active, always tried to learn knew things, and never let herself become dependent upon others. She’s right, one can’t live 105 years without feeling independent and needed by others.

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