Who is the Oldest Person You Have Personally Known and what are were Their Characteristics?

I always would talk with him I used to work at the aforementioned store he would frequent and it’s how knew him. Lots of people would just dismiss him based on his looks alone.

a reply to: Onlyyouknow

The lake they live on only has indigenous specious.White fish and Pike minnows, bony fish. We could catch a hundred a day but they are survival food. not very tasty. But a couple of klicks down the road is a trophy northern rainbow lake. Nice fishing with a double ought fly rod.

a reply to: Onlyyouknow

a reply to: MykeNukem

I went back and edited it to "They're all my own"

I did have a suspicion that I had misquoted her.

I worked with a woman who was 101. She was very petite, quiet, and had paranoid schizophrenia and dementia.

She had a degree from a very prominent university where I am, and worked for the forest service for almost 25 years.

She was a very rare case of a woman who hid her schizophrenia from literally everyone, somehow, until she just couldn't anymore, and then, according to her records, she told her doctor at the time, (early 1960's) that for years, people had been following her around who weren't there and she knew they weren't real.

She lived at home and kept raising her 4 kids for another 8 years, then was moved to a local ward for people "like her".

By the time I met her, she was in a group home setting for dementia/mental health seniors, and her kids still all visited every week. They would sit and watch an old show called Lawrence Welk (I think) and look through her old yearbooks. It was really obvious that they really loved her.

The only things that really gave away that she was schizophrenic was her WILDLY erratic make up. It was very intense, but she really took her time with it every day.

And, at night, she would say good night to all of the people who "followed" her. But she would only do it once everyone was in their own rooms.

She passed away quietly a couple of years later. And I always kind of wondered if she wasn't really "schizophrenic" (she didn't recieve that diagnosis until the 80's), but just different in a time when that wasn't okay. 🤷‍♀️

originally posted by: pthena
a reply to: MykeNukem

I went back and edited it to "They're all my own"

I did have a suspicion that I had misquoted her.

Lmao to the Matriarch.

Mine are bad now and I'm only 47 lol.

my grandfather Charlie
he lived by the old testament from the Bible
I think he still watches over me with my grandmother

a reply to: Onlyyouknow The oldest person I know who was in decent shape was a woman of ninety nine and six months old. We insulated her house and the tv cable got pulled off her house when we pulled some siding loose. I went in to tell her what happened and she said Darn, I am almost a hundred and do not have that much time left to watch TV, hopefully the cable company can get if fixed today. I called the cable company and told them what she had said and they got someone there within fifteen minutes and it was fixed within a half hour. She was so thankful, she did not miss her one oclock soap opera.

She made us coffee for lunch every day, She mentioned she is not going to spend her last days making sweets for people though, so we went out and bought doughnuts and sweets and she was happy to get one with her coffee.

She died at the age of a hundred and one years old. She did not go to the hospital or doctors unless necessary, she had too many friends die from being stuck in the hospital. One thing she said is that when you are her age, your friends have died, your kids have died, your kids friends have died, and the grandkids are retiring and in bad shape. She was tired of having to make new friends all the time and said that she quit going out and making new friends because it sucks when friends die.

My grandfather died at eighty four, pronouncing him dead at the hospital was the first time he had ever been to a doctor or hospital, he did not even like to go visit people in the hospital. He was strong and healthy till the end other than being stiff from some arthritis and slowed down from being old. He worked on my dads farm picking berries, veggies, and potatoes through the summer before he died,

I have known quite a few people in their eighties and nineties in decent shape., most of the healthy ones eat homemade foods. The ones who ate lots of processed foods and in restaurants a lot were pretty sick and taking lots of meds and the reasons they were taking meds is that their diet was not matched to their ancestral eating habits compared to the ones who were healthy up to the end.

a reply to: Onlyyouknow

I’ve spoken to WW1 vets.

originally posted by: jerich0

originally posted by: Akragon
a reply to: Onlyyouknow

108...

basically a vegetable that you feed that calls out for mommy on occasion

very sad

I hope you suffer great pain in your enduring years..

Wow what asinine words

thats pretty cold man... totally F**kin D**kish for that matter

its an answer to a simple question... do you believe i was making fun of my resident who i took care of for 6 years before she died..... really?

Get off your high horse... realize that it happens to people in their old age... and it may happen to you or me

and whoever starred that stupid comment needs a good slap too...

F**k Sakes... some people

originally posted by: Onlyyouknow
a reply to: Akragon

I’m sorry.

The actual oldest person I have known, although not personally, was 112. She was as you described as a “vegetable”. It was when I was charge nurse of a nursing home. What made her hold on so long in that condition is beyond my comprehension, except that the only explanation is that the will to live sometimes knows no bounds.

Yeah its very sad sometimes...

what is also sad is people like the person i replied to above... oblivious to the facts of old age...

I loved this lady... but she was in a horrible state... but one day even they will see the truth of age and time...

Funny story though... before this lady was bed ridden she used to sit at the front door of my home and greet people with "Welcome to Hell!" LOL

Spicy til the end...

a reply to: Onlyyouknow

My Grandmother who lived to be 104. Lived on her own all but her last few months, 3rd floor apartment with no elevator. Born in the 1880's. Never drove a car. Sharp as a tack until her last days.

My (ex) wife and I sat with her on her balcony once (she was 102 then). We were enjoying each other's company in silence as the sun went down, looking out over the water off Rockport, Mass. At one point she started talking, to no person in particular. She said:

"You know...In my lifetime I've seen the invention of the lightbulb, and the telephone. I've seen the invention of the car. I've witnessed the invention of the airplane, and the radio. I've seen the invention of a bomb so powerful it could end all of humanity. I've seen the invention of television and the computer. I've seen terrible diseases be cured. I've even watched as mankind walked on the surface of the Moon. I've lived through two World Wars and the Great Depression. None of these things I thought I would ever see."...and then she paused.

I about fell off my chair when the sheer magnitude of what she'd just said soaked in. She'd seen all of those things in her lifetime!

Then she resumed..."I cannot even begin to imagine what I will see next, but I can't wait. I'm not even sure my little old brain will be able to absorb any more, but I look forward to trying."

She had witnessed the greatest achievements of mankind. All of that in a single lifetime.

And what have we accomplished since then?

I have often opined about this subject here on ATS.

There was one thing my Grandmother didn't witness, and I'm thankful she didn't. She didn't witness two of the tallest buildings in the World crashing to the ground on September 11th, 2001.

I would like to be able to write that I wish she were here today to talk to, but I honestly believe she is in a better place than where we all are today.

She was a great lady. I miss her.

Funny story about my Grandmother. Happened during the same discussion I noted above. Her apartment sat on the side of a small hill. Looking from her balcony that day there was an odd shaped building down below. I asked her if she knew what the building was.

She said..."Pfffffft! That's just where they keep the old people." Her response was very matter of fact.

She was 102 at the time!

My ex and I laughed and laughed. Grandma just chuckled and said..."Well, that's what you get when you stop living."

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Bravo!

Love that story bro!

a reply to: rickymouse

She sounds like she was fun. I wonder what her favorite soap opera was.

a reply to: Akragon

“Welcome to Hell”- lol. That would have made me laugh everytime.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

That is a lot of living.Thanks for telling it. I wonder what she would think of our phones and how some people seem to have them permanently attached to their hands?

Lots of great stories too...

My Grandma's best friend was this lady who lived underneath her, her name was Estelle. Estelle was almost the same age as Grandma, maybe a little younger. No one knew much about Estelle's background, she never talked about it. But she had a car, and she drove that car. (The car itself is another whole story of its own...maybe another time).

My Grandma wanted to make some of her famous clam chowder for us, so we had to go down to the fish market to get the clams and also pick up some milk and butter. Estelle was visiting Grandma as this discussion evolved. Estelle jumps up and says "I'll take ya! We can go in my car!" Grandma says we should let Estelle drive us to the market. **sigh** Okay, so we agree to let Estelle drive. (she was probably pushing 100 at this point). I'm figuring we're going to go on a 15mph excursion to the store, but oh well, Estelle seemed pretty excited about the whole deal.

We get in her car which is a 60's vintage mint condition Dodge Coronette. I mean you could eat off the seats in this thing it was so clean. She backs out, and then proceeds to lay rubber across the parking lot! I'm ready to grab the wheel thinking she just had a stroke and died right there! She manages to stop at the edge of the parking lot, looks both ways, and punches it again out onto the street, just burnin' rubber! HOLY CRAP!! Estelle had two speeds...Mash the gas pedal to the floor, and/or mash the brake pedal to the floor! That's it! We're going down this side street and Estelle has got her foot in this Coronette. I'm watching the speedo...40, 50, 60, 70...we're in a 35mph speed zone, and we're coming up to a stop sign. I'm pointing, my (ex) wife is in the back seat hanging on for dear life. VRRROOOOM! Estelle blows through this stop sign like it's not even there!

Me: "Estelle, you did see that stop sign back there, right?"

Estelle: "Yeah, I saw it, but I'm old; I don't have time for that crap."

I think we hit the parking lot of the market at about 75mph, and she cranks the wheels around to the left and does a power-slide up to the curb at the front door and says only..."HURRY! Don't have much time!"...LOL! Felt like I should run in and rob the joint, with Estelle as my getaway driver! As I'm sprinting through the fish joint I'm picturing the next days headlines in the paper...."Clamburglar Strikes Again!"

The ride home was pretty much the same, although Estelle did slow down a little bit for one of the red lights; she just kind of lifted her foot off the gas momentarily and then stomped on it at about the middle of the intersection!

(Found out later that car actually had a Hemi in it, one of the original Hemi's)

The clam chowder was awesome.

a reply to: Akragon

but one day even they will see the truth of age and time...

It isn't always age and time.

This one woman had a very aggressive type of MS. She was in the facility where she used to work.

The nurses sometimes said "She's the same age as me. We worked together. Makes you think."

103 and her advise - just keep moving.