Wisdom of the ages: how to live to 100

Lynn Peters Adler’s has interviewed 500 centenarians for a new book on longevity and tells Margaret Jennings why we should respect and value older people    

WHEN Lynn Peters Adler was 15 she went shopping with her grandmother for her Christmas gift — a new winter coat. As her grandmother was completing the purchase, the saleswoman asked Lynn: ‘How does she want to pay for this?’ Realising that her gran was being ignored, Lynn replied: ‘Why don’t you ask her?’ On the way home, Lynn’s grandmother, who was in her 60s, bemoaned that ‘no-one wants to talk to you when you’re old’.

The teenager paid attention after that and realised that, indeed, people, including family members, treated her grandmother differently. That was in the 1960s. Half a century later it seems laughable that a 60-year-old would be ignored, as an increasing number of men and women are visibly vibrant at that age.