DARE TO BE 100. IT'S NOT TIME YET

Huffington Blog DARE TO BE 100

JUNE 27,2017

IT’S NOT TIME YET

One of the treasures of being a geriatrician is a letter that I received two weeks ago. Out of the blue I opened the envelope it read: “Dear Dr. Bortz,

I’m writing to tell you how you helped me live to 100. I had just read your article about how we all could live to be 100 and those words were planted, like seeds, in my mind. At that time I was 62 and it was 1980 when I took

early retirement.

I told myself I could and would achieve

that goal. Over the following years when people would ask me what was the secret of my longevity I would mention your name and tell them about your theory.

The years went by and I never thought about or knew you had written many books. I was too busy with my life to do so.

My mind was always set on living to be 100.”

I took this letter to be an invitation to place a phone call to my new centenarian friend. What a delight! I learned that she had just completed her first book, poetry. Timidly she asked whether I might consider writing a preface. I leapt at the opportunity.

We now await a coming out party for its publication at her retirement community across the bay in September. I’m sure that it will be a blast.

Such an uplifting encounter makes me proud that all my chest thumping about living up to our potential of 100 healthy years has an impact.

I recall Ed Mintz, a devoted patient. One day in my office he remarked, “Doc, I’m 86 years old, and I have been hanging around my apartment looking out of the window waiting for the hearse to pull up, but then I read your stuff and recognized that IT’S NOT TIME YET!”

A big part of my life’s main errand is assuring us all that our calendars are set to the right Lifetime. And Robert Browning promised “the best is yet to be, for which the first was made.”