|
A GOOD AGE: 100 years young: South Shore centenarians have attitude
![]()
Peter Minnar, 104, lives on his own in Quincy. On the wall is a photo of Minnar when he was in his 20s. |
Quincy - Boston MA: At the end of every year, I check in with a few of the oldest people I've written about to see how they are doing. Often I haven't spoken to them in quite a while. Here's this year's report from a timely trio.
Peter L. Minnar of Quincy has always been quick with a quip and still is at age 104. When his granddaughter, 30-year-old Corrina Lee, asks him, ‘‘Gramps, what's new?'' he's apt to reply, ‘‘New York, New London.'' If she asks, ‘‘How do you feel?'' he'll say, ‘‘With my fingers.''
Humor is one of Minnar's secrets for a long and happy life.
‘‘My grandfather is amazing,'' said Lee, a nurse who visits him weekly. ‘‘He still lives in his own home and cooks all his own food, a fresh salad every day, all on his own, and he's very safe to do it. He walks every day, goes to church and he has a great social network.'' When Minnar is feeling top-notch, you're apt to see him cruising up and down the aisles at the grocery store with Lee, who shops for him.
His recipe for longevity also includes the right genes - his mother lived to age 96 - and flexibility. ‘‘You have to change with the times, as everything changes,'' he advised.
Minnar came to this country in 1920 at age 19 from Albania. He was a Boston ballet dancer whose style was known as adagio acrobatique. A yellowed 1924 news clipping reads, ‘‘Minnar performed very difficult Russian dances close to the floor, as well as prodigious floating leaps reminiscent of Nijinksy.'' He also danced in vaudeville, owned the Howard Grille across from the old Quincy Shipyard for 40 years and was active in politics and the Holy Trinity Albanian Orthodox Church in South Boston.
When I first met him 10 years ago, he was 94 and still moved with a grace and spring in his steps. He has slowed down some and had a bout with pneumonia last month, but he still gets out to church with friends, walks often and retains a measured (and treasured) vitality and interest in the world around him.
A gentle humor also marks Ruth Tuch, a longtime Whitman resident who turned 106 on Dec. 4. She lives now in the Sachem Nursing Center in East Bridgewater and every Monday and Thursday goes to the Whitman Senior Center to have lunch.
‘‘Ruth is still just so engaged in life,'' said Patricia McCarthy, director of the Whitman council on aging. ‘‘When you see her, she always asks, ‘How are your kids? How are the grandchildren?'''
Tuch is a lively cribbage player who can do the math in her head and often beats friends like Pat Goldmann, a volunteer at the Whitman senior center. ‘‘She's still got the gleam in her eye,'' Goldmann said.
Tuch's roots in Whitman go deep - her grandfather, Charles F. Allen, was Whitman's first fire chief and led the first Massachusetts militia to answer president Abraham Lincoln's call for troops in 1861. As Goldmann said, ‘‘How many people can say they have lived in three centuries?'' Tuch can recall walking with her grandfather as a girl and she lived in his house in Whitman until four years ago.
At the Sachem nursing home, Judy Gill, 55, activities director, admires Tuch for the way she mingles with the other residents at the morning socials, loves to reminisce and ‘‘wheels around'' to visit in her wheelchair. She gets a daily newspaper and ‘‘her memory is a heck of a lot better than mine and I'm half her age,'' Gill said. ‘‘She's an awesome lady.''
The ‘‘junior'' in this trio is George L. Conway of Milton who celebrated his 102nd birthday Nov. 22. Conway became a champion race walker in his 80s and until a year ago, he worked out at the South Shore YMCA on the strength training equipment. Like the others, he has an optimism and a humor.
‘‘As I get older, I get slower, and all these women say, ‘Oh you're 102, isn't that wonderful?''' Conway said. ‘‘I say, ‘Well, I'll sell you a couple of years.'''
Conway likes to do the daily Jumble puzzle in the newspaper. He said he passes his time with pleasant thoughts about his life. ‘‘I go over the past a lot, things that have happened,'' he said. ‘‘Maybe that's true of old people. And there was a song and it was so soothing and peaceful, I try to sing it to myself. Every once in a while I get hold of that one.'' (He hummed a few bars.)
He lives with his daughter, Donna Gallagher, 58, of Milton and her family. ‘‘He's still just himself and for his age, he never complains, he accepts everything as it comes,'' Gallagher said. ‘‘A lot of older people get crabby and cranky. I said, ‘Dad, you're never in a bad mood,''' and he said, ‘That's true, but the people that are crabby, they always were that way but they get worse by age. I never will (get crabby).'''
—A PERSONAL NOTE:This is the 25th year I've written this column and as more people live longer, the New Year's checks have grown to include not only more people but more centenarians. This year, I've had to limit this to three of the very oldest but so many more are in my heart and thoughts. A healthy and happy holiday to all of you and your families.
Same time next year?
GERONTOLOGY - Applications are being accepted for the Manning certificate program in gerontology at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. Classes begin Jan. 27 for the spring semester.
The program prepares students with the skills and resources needed to plan for an aging society, work in the aging network, and advocate for elders. The curriculum covers training in social policy, applied research and direct services.
The gerontology courses are from 8:45 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Thursdays. There is also an evening program.
Students take two courses each semester for two semesters. Credits from the certificate program can be applied to the bachelor's program in gerontology. Tuition is waived for students over 60. Financial
Mos harroni se Shqiperia eshte nje Liste Informative Kombetare Shqiptare, synon ne nxitjen e atedhedashurise, tek te gjithe shqipetaret pa dallim Krahine, besmi dhe seksi. Me parimin : Me i nderuari nga ne eshte nacionalisti dhe ai qe i sherben me shume ceshtjes kombetare... Per kete jane te ftuar te gjithe shqiptaret kudo qe ndodhen qe te kontribojne ne rritjen e atedhedashurise nder shqiptar...
Per tu anetaresuar ne liste e-mailo:
shqiperia-subscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Per ta lene listen e-mailo:
shqiperia-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
==================================================================
Yahoo! Groups Links
| 