Lessons from a life lived long?
Sing songs with gusto. Attend your first Red Sox game at age 107 and lead the crowd in a rousing rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” Joke often. And have darn good genes.
Until her final weeks, before dying in her sleep at the age of 114 on Sunday at a New Hampshire nursing home, Mary Josephine Ray, the oldest person in America and second-oldest in the world, also played cribbage, watched her soap operas and kept a snifter of port nearby.
Ray attributed her longevity to God. But others credit her joie de vivre, approaching each day with a sense of wonder and gratitude. “She always lived in the present, every day,’’ her granddaughter Kathy Ray told The Boston Globe. “She took each day as it came. She lived in the moment and never gave a thought to dying.’’
Kama Chinen of Japan, the oldest person in the world, is 114 years and 303 days; Ray lived 114 years, 292 days. Just one in seven million people live to 110, said Thomas Perls, director of the New England Centenarian Study, of which Ray was a member. “They markedly delay the onset of any age-related diseases,’’ said Perls. “To get to 110, there’s a really strong genetic component.’’
Perls marveled at Hays’ mental abilities, particularly her excellent long-term memory. Said Perls: “She was amazing.”
Born in Prince Edward Island in 1895, Ray spent most of her life in Maine until her husband, Walter, died in 1967. Despite her advancing years, Ray lived on her own and didn’t enter the nursing home in New Hampshire until after the age of 100. “She would break into song, recite poetry, at the drop of the hat,” said Steven Wilson, activity director of the home. “The staff got very attached to her, and we are all going to miss her a great deal.’’
