Who were the oldest people in your family and what was their nationality?

[senior citizen]

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[DougB]

My Italian grandmother (father's side) passed away at 102. Although, she claimed she wasn't a day over 101. She never obsessed what she ate. Ate whatever she wanted. Even caught her one time eating the brillo pad that fell in her food.

[bkcunningham1]

My dad is still living. He's 93. He was always active. He was a pleasure walker and a bicycle rider. Did his calisthenics every morning. He's English/German descent. Only medication he's taken in his life was prescribed just recently to increase his appetite. He's always eaten what he wanted to eat, but ate in moderation. He never smoked. My dad drank Old Grandad when he was younger. He hasn't drank in years and years.

I have two uncles who were married to my father's sisters who are 90 and 92. None of these three smoked. Neither ever smoked. One uncle was Cherokee and the other is of English descent. Neither were drinkers. One is a tee-totaler the other drinks a little bourbon when he golfs.

I had a friend who lived here in TV who died February 26 at 100 years old. If he'd lived to May 30 he would have celebrated his 101st birthday. He was Italian. He walked every day. Never took one prescription medicine in his entire life. For years he took Dr. Whitaker's vitamin supplements. He loved his wine but drank in moderation.

[senior citizen]

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[senior citizen]

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[bkcunningham1]

Wonderful question. Thanks for sharing. They are good memories. I've enjoyed reading yours and Doug's. My friend from TV who died at 100 was a devout Catholic. My father and uncles aren't what I'd call deeply religious but have an unshakable faith in God.

[senior citizen]

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[pooh]

My father was 97 when he died. His mother, my grandmother was in her late 90's when she died. My great grandmother, grandmother's mother was 99 when she passed away. Great grandmother smoked, would have liquor ever now and again and ate whatever she wanted. Grandmother did not smoke, but did eat what might be considered a healthy/unhealthy diet. Ate fruit, nuts, some veggies, but also meat, fatty and lean, eggs, cheese, fish and sweets. Dad smoked cigars for years, had a highball or beer a few nights each week, loved eggs, seafood, beef, pork and chicken. He also enjoyed ice cream, Fritos, white bread, salami, cold cuts. Dad did drink tea just about every day and he walked lots! Dad, Grandma and Great Grandma were Portuguese.

Mom was 88 when she passed. She outlived her older and younger siblings. She wasn't a big veggie or fruit eater. She did love beef, chicken, seafood, cold cuts, ice cream, sweets, scotch and she smoked for years. My Grandmother, Mom's Mom was in her 70's when she died. Emphysema took her life, and she was never a smoker and never was around smokers. She was a walker and until she became ill, was active, living on her own on the second floor of the three family home she owned. Her illness took her life quickly which to this day, makes me believe there was something else involved. She took ill and died in just a few months. This is the Italian side of my family.

Both Grandfathers passed early, Mom's father, before I was born, my Dad's father when I was about 9.

[Barefoot]

My English Grandmother passed over at the age of 96. Each night before going to bed, she would drink a glass of port to help her sleep.

[mfp509]

My German grandmother lived to be 100 and was one smart lady. Of course, by 100 she had pretty much lost her hearing and eyesight but her mind was sharp. When I would go to visit, I would hold her hand and yell into her "good" ear that it was me - I can still picture her face lighting up and her saying " Oh, Hi"!! We knew she was failing and wondered if she would be able to celebrate her 100th - well, she rallied and was the life of the party and the last one to leave. It was a great day! She passed away 1 month later.

[jebartle]

My French/English Great Grandmother lived until 98....Lived on her own until her death...

[senior citizen]

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[senior citizen]

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[senior citizen]

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[senior citizen]

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[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

My French/Scottish/Canadian Grandmother lived to 103. My other three grandparents died fairly young.

[rubicon]

Given Italian parentage maternal and paternal had me joking that growing up I believed the entire world was Italian. Really our small city had a broad cross section of ethnicity. Most adhered to their cultural diets. and customs. Some lived long lives while others died prematurely. I have seen children who have died before their parents and people who seemed in perfect health fall suddenly.

Experts vacillate on advice. suddenly now experts are moving away from diet as the cure to perhaps it ll has to do with an overall healthy lifestye. I mean what does it do to be a vagan when your sedinary and a big boozer

[gomoho]

Given Italian parentage maternal and paternal had me joking that growing up I believed the entire world was Italian. Really our small city had a broad cross section of ethnicity. Most adhered to their cultural diets. and customs. Some lived long lives while others died prematurely. I have seen children who have died before their parents and people who seemed in perfect health fall suddenly.

Experts vacillate on advice. suddenly now experts are moving away from diet as the cure to perhaps it ll has to do with an overall healthy lifestye. I mean what does it do to be a vagan when your sedinary and a big boozer

I don't believe you will find many Vegans that are sedentary and big boozers. That lifestyle takes a tremendous amount of work shopping and preparing food so they are very motivated to continue a healthy lifestyle in all regards.

[BarryRX]

My wife and I just got back from Delray beach where we attended a birthday party for her aunt who was 104 and while she is hard of hearing (the aunt, not the wife) she is still sharp as a tack. Her people come from Eastern Europe (Poland and Hungary) and are Ashkenazy Jews, a people that seem to have good genes. The surprising thing about the party is that the aunt had two of her friends with her, both were also Ashkenazy and both were also 104 years young! I assume that will be the only time in my life that I was in a room with three 104 year old people!

[gpirate]

My mother in law is 98 years old and still going strong. Her mother lived to 101. Proud Germans. Brewed their own beer and wines and ate all the German foods daily. I miss grandma because she was the cook.

[Villages PL]

Who were the oldest people in your family and what was their nationality or ethnic background?

Okay, I've decided to play along with this non-scientific survey, although I'm not sure what the point of it is. Is it supposed to prove something? My parents and grandparents were Italian. What difference does nationality make? The Japanese in Okinawa have a great record for health and longevity because they practice a careful calorie-restricted diet.

The oldest person in my Italian family-tree was a man who was born in 1850 and died in 1956. I have no knowledge of what his lifestyle was. I had a great aunt who lived to 100. My grandfather lived to 97. One grandmother lived to 89. Two aunts lived to 89. Does anyone really care about all of this?

Did they over obsess over their health or basically was their philosophy one of not worrying but just enjoying their particular regional or ethnic cousine?

The word "obsess" is a loaded and biased word. How would I know for sure if my ancestors were obsessed or simply being careful? Both of my grandmothers had ideas about what was good and bad for health. My mother also had ideas of what was good and bad for health. So, naturally, they tried to do mostly good and minimize or eliminate the bad. Were they obsessed or simply being prudent? Because the word "obsess" was used, the survey is biased.

Please share whatever memories pop up with regard to loved ones or even neighbors who enjoyed great longevity without going to extremes in changing their dietary habits.

They didn't change much because like most people they were creatures of habit. They brought their simple eating habits with them from Italy.

If there were any who did lead a Spartan lifestyle, please include those memories as well.

I'm not sure exactly what qualifies as spartan. Furthermore, I wasn't with them every day. And most people reading this thread, like me, may not have accurate memories of what their grandparents ate on a daily basis. We mostly visited on weekends and special days when their diet may have been more liberal, or not so careful.

If there were any that smoked (cigars or cigarettes or a pipe) and still lived to a ripe old age, please include them as well.

My paternal grandfather smoked a pipe and died when I was about three years old. He wasn't young but not too old either. He had a bleeding brain stroke and died on the way to the hospital.

Did "faith" and "peace of mind" in your own opinion.....also lead to their longevity........or was it strictly their dietary habits?

My maternal grandfather lived the longest of all of my grandparents (97) and he was not at all religious. His wife (my grandmother) was very religious and lived a much shorter life than he did, suffering dementia in her final years. His mind stayed sharp until he died.

Could it simply have been that they inherited good genetics?

In my opinion, they had regular genes like everyone has. Some did well and others did poorly, just like many others on this board. Their genes responded to their lifestyle. They lived longer because they worked hard, did a lot of walking, and ate simple (mostly) unprocessed foods.

I don't recall any of them going to the gym.

That's because they all worked hard and did a lot of walking. None of my grandparents had cars.

[Sable99]

My great grandfather was German and lived to 101. He was a little feeble but was still sharp. I was 8 when he passed away. I remember him telling how he saw Abraham Lincoln's funeral train.

[Barefoot]

Okay, I've decided to play along with this non-scientific survey, although I'm not sure what the point of it is. Is it supposed to prove something?

Just people having fun exchanging stories. It's interesting to hear about people's ancestors. :024:

[Schaumburger]

On my dad's side, my Luxembourger grandfather lived to be 91 and my Luxembourger grandmother lived to be 93. Both were very sharp mentally up to the end. They raised 7 kids on a farm in eastern Iowa through the 1920's, The Great Depression and WWII. There was no electricity on the farm until the early 1940's, and there was no indoor plumbing on the farm while they were living there. My grandparents were devout Catholics, and once they moved to Dubuque in the early 1950's my grandmother walked to church bingo twice a week until she was well into her 80's.

On my mom's side the longevity record is not as good. My German maternal grandfather died in the 1930's when my mom was about 7. My Swedish maternal grandmother died in 1963 when she was in her early 70's.

I am hoping I inherited more of my dad's genes than my mom's genes as far as longevity goes...

[senior citizen]

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[Villages PL]

I'm the opposite. My Italian relatives live well into their 90's. My Scottish relatives, Dad's side, almost all died before the age of 50. My father, his brother and mother all died at 46. I figured I must have gotten a good dose of the Italian genes, because I'm almost 57 and still in good health. Go Mom!!

Your story reminds me of my father's best friend. His Italian friend married a scottish woman and they had two sons.

Let me first say that genes should not be important if you eat a totally healthy diet. It's only when people eat a poor diet that genes for disease get triggered.

So, to continue my story: There were two sons from an Italian father and a scottish mother. No one could know which side of the family they got their genes from. But there's one way to find out: Have both of them eat a poor diet and see which one dies first. What a great experiment!! There was no heart disease on the father's side but I'm not sure about the mother's side.

Anyway, the father went into the fast food business and it was a family business. They all worked at it and grew fond of eating their own fast foods that they sold. Even at home they liked eating lots of fatty meats with plenty of butter on everything. Even though they all had excess weight on them, they all appeared to be healthy.

But one day the oldest son (in his early 40s) was climbing stairs to get to his second floor appartment and he just dropped dead from a sudden heart attack. That's a tough way to find out that you have a predisposition for heart disease.

If he had eaten a healthy diet low in saturated fat and processed foods he might have lived into his 70s or 80s. (Some people are born with few cholesterol receptors while others have more than enough.) The point is this: If you don't know for sure what diseases you have a predispoition for, the best thing you can do is eat a totally healthy diet, thereby lowering your risk for all diseases.

[senior citizen]

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[senior citizen]

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[DougB]

Village PL,
Thanks for playing along and sharing your touching remembrances with us. Very heartwarming!
:jester:

[senior citizen]

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[senior citizen]

My mother in law is 98 years old and still going strong. Her mother lived to 101. Proud Germans. Brewed their own beer and wines and ate all the German foods daily. I miss grandma because she was the cook.

The Germans in my family tree also enjoyed great longevity.

Home made sauerkraut is loaded with Vitamin C and nutrients; it got them through the winter in a healthy state.......

The home made beer which they brewed was also loaded with B vitamins, etc........and the alchohol content kept their blood flowing.........just as the Italian wine for the Italians...........they didn't need the pharmaceuticals in those days or the Centrum Silver.......

My favorite German dish is sauerbraten...........our son in law makes a good one.........which I also did when all the kids were at home....marinating it for days.........adding the gingersnaps to the gravy at the end..........German foods are delish.

[senior citizen]

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[Geewiz]

My Papa -- the man who raised me and was technically my step-grandfather lived until he was 101. He died in 2010 - just after my divorce (a bad year - my music partner died from ALS that year, also).

Papa lived many lives. He was of Russian Jewish stock. He was kicked out of his home at 16 for shacking up with a 22 year old divorcee. He went to live with his uncle who was in the fish business. His uncle sent him to Sitka Alaska to work on a fishing boat. Papa came back and sold herring to Jewish businesses throughout Chicago.

During the war he was sent back to the Alaska where he was wounded by a Japanesse bomber.

After the war, he opened his own smokehouse and store. His best friend was Lenny Patrick - a Jewish member of the Outfit and a well known hit man (Jack Ruby worked for him).

He rescued me from my divorced parents (who kept kidnapping me back and forth) by saying he'd have Lenny kill them both if they continued to mess with me. Papa took me in and raised me as his son.

By the late 80's Papa sold his business. We toured Europe together. I remember us renting bicycles at Versaiilles and touring the grounds. He biked fast.

A year later he drove to LA and did what every retired fish guy does - he went to work for a movie special effects company. He became friends with Martin Scorsese. He travelled to Hawaii and Nola. He lived well.

When his body started to fail he raged. Death was a relief - it freed his soul. I miss Papa.

[senior citizen]

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[Geewiz]

Wow is all I can say. Papa's story deserves a full length tribute , perhaps in book form. Did you ever think of writing his entire life story????

I'll bet you miss him. Death is nothing to fear. As you said, "It frees ones soul"........

Not a bad idea - I'll have to edit down some of Lenny. Lenny is dead - his kids and crew are not. It's nice to have their numbers. Lenny was by Jewish godfather and protector.

[senior citizen]

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[senior citizen]

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[Schaumburger]

Important remembrances as well. My own mom , born 1911, always told me about the outhouses in her youth......no electricity, thus reading by gaslight....etc. They all walked everywhere.

I've told you before that Iowa is one of my favorite states. It is so pretty.
Love the covered bridges, which rival Vermont's own covered bridges.
Love the area where the Amana Colonies are.......nice rolling hills.

The men often died from harsh working conditions or contracting influenza, thus they were outlived by their wives........and children.

Both my Ukrainian grandfather, who died at age 38, a very handsome man and my Italian grandfather, who died at age 50, ditto.....had been ill with the Spanish Flu........an influenza that was very deadly.......but their wives outlived them by quite a long number of years........

My mom was seven years old when her father died. She came home from school and saw him "laid out in the parlor". Thinking he was just sleeping, she ran up to him to hug him and he was ice cold. She remembered that sensation till her dying day.

She always remembered how he would come home from work and pick her up and hug her and then swing her around.........she was his firstborn.

The women who were widowed young did NOT have an easy life thereafter. There was not all the help and assistance there is today and what "relief" there was, most were too proud to take it.......as my mom would always say that "Grandma would never take relief". She later remarried a good man...........whereas my Italian grandmother mourned her husband for 50 years, never remarrying. He must have been some Italian stud. My grandmother always said that I looked like him...in a female way of course....probably his mom.


The movie/book "The Bridges of Madison County" is set in Madison County, Iowa, which is about 3 hours west of where I grew up in eastern Iowa. Parts of northeast Iowa along the Mississippi were never touched by the glaciers which flattened most of Iowa, so parts of northeast Iowa are quite hilly. If you drive about 25-30 miles west of Dubuque, the land starts flattening out quite a bit. The baseball movie "Field of Dreams" was filmed about 25 miles west of Dubuque, and the cast and crew stayed in Dubuque during the filming.

When my mom's father passed away when she was a child, this would have been about 1936 or 1937, he was also "laid out" in the parlor for 2 days for his wake -- I guess there were no funeral homes in the 1930's? That always has kind of creeped me out thinking about having a wake in your home. After my grandfather died, my grandmother rented out a room in her house to single ladies to bring in extra money.

Fortunately my mom's two older sisters were old enough to work and bring in some money after their dad died. When WWII broke out, my mom's two older sisters went to work for the federal government in Washington DC where jobs were plentiful. My oldest aunt, Mildred, met her husband in Washington DC, and they married just before he was shipped to Europe during WWII. My mom's second sister, Alice, unfortunately developed kidney failure while living in Washington DC and died at the age of 23. In the early 1940's kidney dialysis was not developed yet, and Alice wasn't even sick for a month before she died of kidney failure. My mom and her mom got to Washington DC on the train from Iowa just 2 days before my Aunt Alice died. Unfortunately my mom also developed renal failure when she turned 64 in 1994, and she spent her last 3 years on kidney dialysis, so I am wondering if kidney disease runs on my mom's side of the family since both my mom and her sister had it. I have given some thought about being a living kidney donor to someone not related to me, but with both my mom and my aunt having kidney disease, I'm not sure if I should do that or not.

Both of my parents were born at home in 1930. I know that home births have caught on somewhat in recent years, but there is no way in he___ that I would choose to have a baby at home. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

[senior citizen]

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[Villages PL]

Village PL,
Thanks for playing along and sharing your touching remembrances with us. Very heartwarming!
:jester:

I don't do "heartwarming". :) I think it's best to leave that to others.

[DougB]

I don't do "heartwarming". :) I think it's best to leave that to others.

:1rotfl:

[PennBF]

Grandfather lived to 102 and Grandmother 94. He was born in 1868 and passed away in 1970. Owned a farm and was a Sheriff in 1900. Never sick and thought we worried too much. Was the kindest and most gentle person I ever knew. He was French and Grandmother English/Dutch. Just great persons. Never drank and did smoke a pipe with cigar clipping he ordered from a cigar store. We were all blessed to know them and have them as Grandparents. :pepper2:

[senior citizen]

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[Quixote]

My Russian great grandmother, great uncle, and grandmother all lived to about 90, give or take a year. Ironic that the next generation, that is, my parents' generation, living on this side of the Atlantic, didn't come close to 90—not one of them!

And the generation after that (mine), we've already lost two: One we can't really count, as she (age 51) was killed along with her husband and two other people in an auto accident, the husband being a lunatic of a driver; however, the other died (age 55) of a form of cancer that was presumed to be environmental.

Though not able to be substantiated statistically, it appears—at least in my family—that decades ago one was healthier (as measured by greater longevity) living in Russia than here....

[senior citizen]

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