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Seniors on the Go
by author Gail Johnson

A couple of noon hours a week, George Martin can be found at a downtown Vancouver fitness class, balancing on top of a big, bright stability ball or doing multiple sets of bicep curls with heavy weights. At 78 Martin keeps up with the best of them.

In Ottawa Ivan Acorn heads to the office every day at a financial services firm, where he specializes in mutual funds. Besides working full-time, the chartered accountant has just started taking tap dance lessons. He’s 87.

Calgary’s Anne Muir has a jam-packed schedule: the 65-year-old retired librarian fills her days volunteering, taking art classes, doing yoga, walking, lifting weights, attending church, and getting together with friends.

Sixty is the New 40

There’s no denying that today’s 60-year-old acts and feels like yesterday’s 50- or even 40-year-old. By 2031 Canada will be home to about 9 million seniors, up from 4 million in 2005. Today men who make it to age 65 can expect to live another 13 years, according to Statistics Canada, while women can expect to live about another 17. They might want to take cues from people such as Martin, Acorn, and Muir, who are role models when it comes to healthy aging. How do they do it?

For Acorn, working is vital to his well-being. Asked when he’ll retire, he deadpans, “Just like Warren Buffett said, ‘Three years after I’m dead.’”

He laughs, then explains why, after more than 50 years, he’s still part of the daily grind. “It’s interesting work; it’s intellectually stimulating. My theory is if you keep spinning along, you’ll keep moving. If you stop, you’ll be horizontal.”

This is coming from a man who, after having joined the army in 1941, landed in France on D-Day. (Hopefully younger readers will know when that was–June 6, 1944.) The Regina native returned home in 1946 and later settled in Ontario, where he and his late wife raised two daughters.

Genetic Advantage

Besides maintaining a career he loves, Acorn, a grandfather of two, attributes his good health to “luck and genes.” His parents were remarkable in their own right–gardening, playing bridge, and painting until late in their long lives–they both nearly made it to 100.

Martin, too, comes from “good stock.” His mom died at age 105, his dad at 91. Pushing 80, Martin hasn’t slowed down one bit. Along with those fitness classes, the former Canadian Pacific Railway supervisor also walks, bowls, and plays badminton. He travels to Alberta to see his two kids and four grandkids. Plus, he volunteers with two organizations. He’s a driver for the Freemasons’ Cancer Car Project (in which Freemasons drive cancer patients to their treatments), and as a Shriner, he spends time with sick kids.

Positive Outlook

Staying busy is part of what keeps Martin well; so is having an upbeat outlook, something that isn’t always easy for the affable senior. Three years ago he lost his wife to cancer. They were married for 54 years, and it’s clear Martin’s heart is still broken. Still, he says, life goes on. “You’ve really got to stay positive,” he says. “It’s medicine in itself.”

Muir concurs. She finds it crucial to stay connected to the world around her. “Keep engaged,” she says. “Whatever you love doing, just do it. If you have a passion, follow it.”

Contributing to Muir’s quality of life is her Anglican faith. She’s also found helpful advice in a book she urges others to read: Yale surgery professor Sherwin B. Nuland’s The Art of Aging: A Doctor’s Prescription for Well-Being (Random House, 2007). “It’s so full of common sense–psychological and physiological. It addresses how the body ages, how the mind ages.”

Exercise, work, volunteering, a positive perspective–these are just some of the factors that contribute to healthy aging. Yet there’s more to growing old gracefully than that.
There are, of course, broad determinants of health that affect everyone, such as housing, income, and education. Some segments of the population are at a disadvantage compared to others. The prevalence of chronic diseases in older people is highest, for instance, in First Nations communities and in economically challenged groups. Seniors must also learn to combat ageism.

Perpetual Motion

Gail Johnson is an award-winning Vancouver writer.

Source: alive #313, November 2008