Thinking about longevity (RIP Doris Day) who are or were the oldest people in your family?

[bibbitybobbityyhat]

My dh's great aunt is hopefully going to make it to 100 in July. She lives in a warden controlled old people's complex and doesn't have daily carers but does have quite a lot of help from family in terms of shopping and cooking and obviously couldn't go out on her own any more. However she doesn't have dementia and isn't in full time nursing care.

My step mother's mother is 96.

My own grandmother died at just short of her 95th birthday (in an old people's home but not nursing home for the last 2 years of her life).

I think there was a male relative on my father's side who lived to 101 and died in the 1980s but I don't really know the details.

Actual chances are probably better than that because life expectancy is improving over time.

Actually, that’s no longer the case. This current generation of young adults are the first generation ever not expected to live longer than their parents. Life expectancy - in the UK at least - is going down.

I don't think that's quite the case, Girl.

Although we have seen a marked decrease in the rate of improvement of mortality rates in the past few years, we would still expect some improvement to continue, although I appreciate the risk it could reverse.

I focused on the future life expectancy of those who are already 40, not life expectancy at birth where the picture may be different. I still would expect that mortality rates of 80 year olds in 2060 will be lower than 80 year olds today. (Barring some major catastrophe).

I'm a genealogist so I look at family stuff all the time.

I was looking at a family of Irish immigrants to Glasgow last week. Dad was a labourer, they had 13 kids and they lived in a house that was discussed in parliament as an example of substandard housing. Given average living conditions in 1931 we can assume no indoor plumbing, home not weatherproof etc.

Despite the appalling conditions, not one of the 13 kids died in infancy. Even in a posh family, in pre anti biotic times this would be unusual.

Sadly, they all died in their fifties from lung cancers and alcoholism.

The mother however, outlived them all, every one of them. She died aged 92.

I like to think her final years were spent in safety and comfort, though I can't imagine how it feels to outlive thirteen adult children.

My aunt died just over a year ago aged 96 but she had dementia for the last 5 years and was in a care home...not good...very distressing
I don’t want to get old like that.
I was chatting to a lady the other day whose father was 102 when he died and was in quite good health
Apparently on his 100 birthday she couldn’t get hold of him, so rang a relative to check on him and he hadn’t answered his phone as he was stood on the kitchen table painting the ceiling.

Now that’s the kind of life I want.

Great Grandma - 96
Great Grandma - 98

Both on my paternal side. Both had dementia. The 98 year old smoked 40 Superkings a day her whole life (except when the dementia got really bad) - no idea how she escaped cancer tbh!

On my maternal side - no Great Grandparents and my Grandad died at 52 from an aggressive brain tumour.

My gran lived through two world wars, in fact my grandfathers fought in the First World War.
All of my grandparents were born in Queen Victoria’s reign. My parents in the queen’s grandfathers reign ( George V) and I’ve been around since the queen came to the throne and I hope I see Charles out 😂

MorrisZapp I have been working out our family trees. My family tended to die relatively young pre a century ago, many from tb, which was a big problem in Wales. DH is from an upper class family so very easy to trace back and well recorded, and his family were living into their seventies and eighties even many hundreds of years ago. I imagine that having a decent diet and enough heat helped , but it still amazes me, when you think of all the minor infections that might have carried them off. My great great Grandmother had 12 children and outlived half of them, which was shocking to see on the 1911 census.

Current oldest living is 98 and still in decent shape for someone of her age. My great great granny (same side of the family) died in the 1930s (pre NHS!!) and made it to 99 so there's some good genes.

What a gorgeous photo, RustyBear.
My MiL is 86 and totally independant apart from us taking her to the supermarket once a fortnight. The rest of the time she shops locally or catches the bus into the nearest town.
We're hoping to have a trip to Australia next March and she's thinking of coming with us.

My uncle is 85 looks at least 70 and i think he has a few years left.