Lists of centenarians

Transcription

I'm Annie Mays Larmore. I was born in Forsyth Georgia in a cold February on the 28th, 1907. I lived through the Great Depression, and I lived through two major wars: World War I and World War II. One of the things that's hardest for her is a particular kind of loneliness because everybody who's known her through her life is gone. You have to study yourself and what you want to do. You have to have a purpose, and that purpose has to be one that can change. Some people just get old, they live long enough to get old, but I feel like I grew old. She's sharp as a tack. I think she's sharper than I am. She sits and talks to them in the highchair and plays games with them. She'll get on the floor and let them crawl all around her back in the playpen back there. It's very helpful. [Larmore] You have to learn to adapt to your daughter, then all her children and the changes in society and the dress and the music and the entertainment and the education. [Dr. Martin] Centenarians were very much sheltered by their families, were supported by their families, were supported by their communities, if necessary, and so what we call the environmental support, the social support in particular of centenarians was very, very high, and that was very encouraging to see. [Dammann] My husband died seven years ago, and my father dies eight years ago. After my husband passed away, my son, actually, took over. He and his wife and the grandchildren took over my mother's house, and she moved in with me. [Larmore] I made up my mind. I was gonna have a good time. [Dr. Martin] We looked at a number of personal characteristics or individual characteristics, and we found what we call a cluster of robust personality traits, something that we call, "The Robust Personality of Centenarians." They tended to be very relaxed and emotionally stable. They tended to be very practical, down-to-earth individuals, but they were also shrewd, maybe even suspicious and quite dominant. They were not people you would push around very easily. That, perhaps, surprised us. Perhaps it did not surprise us because as we talk about survivors, you have to have some skills to tell other people that you're there and your needs are going to be met. [Dammann] She's still very independent. I go to work every day, so she prepares meals for herself and pretty well takes care of herself during the daytime, but she likes having someone around at night. It's nice to have that sense of family.