Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

We can learn a lot from people who have lived 100 years. We asked 14 centenarians from around the world to reflect on what it takes to live a healthy and happy life, and to share the advice they would have given to their younger selves.

A black-and-white photo on the left of Sam Baker and his wife on their wedding day. A more recent color photo on Sam Baker is on the right.

Leonard Samuel “Sam” Baker, 101, is a World War II veteran who had a nearly four-decade career in government. He’s retired, but hasn’t stopped working: He writes <a href="https://www.sambakerbooks.com/" target=_blank>children’s books</a> and received a patent for a football helmet he developed to reduce concussion risks. But of all the things he’s done, he said, one of the best was “marrying Janet.” His advice: Choose the right partner and appreciate the time you have.

Baker lives in Scottsdale, Ariz. He met his wife in Sacramento in 1954. Janet was “a perfect soul mate,” he said. She was calming and always gave good advice.

Baker served for decades at the federal agency that established and maintained the national coordinate system, a precursor to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. When his career required him to move, Janet moved with him — seven times in the first year of their marriage. She “never complained,” Baker said — even when he had to spend up to seven months at sea, and she and their children had to stay behind.

“I kept asking myself for a long time, ‘Did I ever tell her enough times how much I loved her?’ ”

Janet died of a heart valve condition at 88. “I was lost for a while” after that, Baker said. “I kept asking myself for a long time, ‘Did I ever tell her enough times how much I loved her?’” It took him years to process his grief. “You have had these 50-some ... years of togetherness, closeness. And suddenly, it’s taken away from you,” he said.

But he realized he was “still whole, and God still had plans for me.” New hobbies and pursuits keep his mind engaged. And, he said, it’s good to have goals. He wants to live to 105 because he wants “to try to solve the water problem in Arizona, and it will take until 105 to do it.” His life feels “full,” though there is always “something missing,” he said. “Janet isn’t here to enjoy it with me.”

A black-and-white photo of Shitsui Hakoishi as a young woman on the left. A more recent photo of her is on the right, in color.

At 107, Shitsui Hakoishi is determined to claim a Guinness World Record. “The title for oldest barber in the world is currently 108 years old, so I need to work until I’m 109,” she said.

Hakoishi moved from a rural town in Tochigi prefecture to Tokyo at the age of 14 to train as a barber, a male-dominated industry at the time. She received her license at 19 years old, on what she called the “happiest day of my life.” Not long after, she experienced the saddest — when her husband was killed fighting in World War II. She moved back to the countryside of Tochigi prefecture, to the town of Nakagawa, and opened her own barber shop, which she still runs today. She devoted her life to cutting hair.

The key to a long life, Hakoishi said, is a career that fills you with joy. “My job is my passion,” she said. “Every day is a blessing.”

Speaking about her younger self, Hakoishi said: “I’m very proud of her. She worked hard. But I wish I could tell her to eat well and take better care of herself.”

She credits her ongoing health to tea that she makes out of dried Japanese ginger, dayflowers and thistle. She drinks three cups with every meal. In 2021, Hakoishi carried the torch for 1.3 miles as part of the relay for the flame-lighting ceremony at the Tokyo Olympic Games, an accomplishment that fills her with pride.

“I have always told my children: Don’t get angry, don’t hate, don’t envy,” she said. “I have always lived by these words.”

Are you 100 years old? Do you know someone who is?

A black-and-white photo of Robbie Hall as a young adult on the left. A more recent photo of her in color is on the right.

Location: Stowmarket, Suffolk, Britain

When Robbie Hall thinks back on her 100 years on Earth, she has one main regret. “I wish I had had a decent education,” Hall, of Stowmarket, England, said. She would tell her younger self: “Get yourself a decent education. And then you can’t go wrong.”

Hall grew up in southeast England during the Great Depression. When Hall turned 14 — then the legal age when children could leave school — her aunt offered to pay for her to attend secretarial college. But Hall would have to pay the bus fare. “I knew how hard-up things were,” she said. Though Hall “loved school,” she left. The chance to earn a living working at a boarding school felt like her best option.

“The only thing I wanted was pocket money,” she recalled. Her mother washed other families’ clothing to feed Hall and her five siblings. After losing his factory job, Hall’s father received government unemployment benefits.

Today, Hall wishes she had made a different choice — and stresses to everyone, but particularly women and girls, the importance of pursuing an education. For her, it’s not just about the crucial skills you learn, but the ease with which educated people can move through society, even when they come from humble upbringings. Hall has passed up other opportunities in her life because “always, at the back of things, I feel my lack of education,” she said. “Study well, study hard.”

A collage showing a black-and-white photo of Bikram Singh Grewal as a young man on the left, and in a color photo on his 100th birthday on the right. 

Location: Chandigarh, Punjab, India

Bikram Singh Grewal started his career as a government engineer around the time India and Pakistan became independent states, when he was in his early 20s. “Hold your ground in being principled,” was his advice to his three children — even if there are consequences to standing up for what’s right.

“It doesn’t matter how much money or wealth you have accumulated,” said Grewal, in an interview from his home in Chandigarh, India, before he died on Jan. 31 at the age of 100. “The true hallmark of success is performing your professional duties diligently and honestly.”

In his personal life, too, Grewal followed a strict discipline in his diet and exercise routine. He ate five fruits and five vegetables everyday and played golf till the age of 93. “I believe it is a combination of a good diet, exercise and a fixed sleep schedule that can help anyone in reaching the age of 100,” he said.

(Left) Colin Bell at age 22 and (right) at around age 102.

Colin Bell — who was married for 73 years — has learned the importance of patience and a sense of humor in his 102 years. But these virtues didn’t come as easily in his 20s when he and his wife, Kathlyn, had children. “I didn’t understand the importance of kindness and tolerance at that age,” said Bell, who lives in southeast London. “I like to think that I’ve developed it since.”

“I didn’t understand the importance of kindness and tolerance at that age. I like to think that I’ve developed it since.”

He now wishes he could tell that younger self to “be kind” and “more tolerant,” particularly of his two children. Bell said serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II affected him as a father in ways he has come to regret. The military was a “harsh and unyielding” environment, he recalled. Upon leaving active service when the war ended, “I’m afraid I brought that attitude into my home,” he said.

“By the time I became a grandfather … I had learned tolerance, I had learned kindness,” he said. “My lovely Kath was my tutor because she was an incredibly kind and tolerant woman. … I think over the years it rubbed off on me.”

At the left is a photo Madeline Paldo with her friends. On the right is Madeline Paldo at her 100th birthday party in December 2022 in Melrose Park, Ill. 

At age 101, Madeline Paldo finds it remarkable that she still has friends. They come over for lunch, including a friend of 60 years, AnnLeola Gervasio. “There’s always action over here,” said Paldo, of River Grove, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. “It’s like a swinging door.”

When Paldo and her husband were raising their two sons, they would meet once a month with six other couples who lived around Chicago. They called the group “Club 14.” The couples would visit each other’s houses to chat; some would play pinochle, a card game. “You could just stop in and visit,” Paldo said. “Everybody had their doors open. They had the pot of coffee on all the time. You could stop by anybody. But today you can’t do that.”

Club 14 got smaller as the group got older. Gervasio and Paldo are the only two from the club who are still alive. Paldo’s husband died in 1991. Her advice: “Enjoy your friends while you have them,” she said. “I’ve lost a few through the years but the ones I’ve got, I cherish.”

On the left is a black-and-white photo of Pearl Taylor. On the right is a more recent photo of her on her 102nd birthday, wearing a yellow party hat.

Pearl Taylor was 39, with 10- and 13-year-old sons, when her first husband left her. She recalls sitting on her bed, “very upset and depressed,” when she found a forgotten gift from a friend: “<a href="https://amzn.to/3tXDLmf" target=_blank>The Game of Life and How to Play It</a>,” a guide to spiritual philosophy and positive thinking by Florence Scovel Shinn.

In those days, “people did not divorce. Whatever happened, we would stay with our partner,” said Taylor, from her home in Dayton, Ohio. The philosophy in the book — which, at 103, she still reads from every day — taught her “Everything in our life, our whole life — we create it” and to believe in the importance of self-worth, she said.

“Everything in our life — we create it.”

Taylor, who was born in Cuba, and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, moved to the United States in 1947 and was a factory worker at a tire company for 25 years. Last year, Taylor started sharing life lessons on TikTok, with the help of her granddaughter. “The mind is very, very powerful,” Taylor says in a <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@taygusta/video/7187909260959943978?lang=en&tab=Followers&type=webapp" target=_blank>video</a> that’s been viewed more than 900,000 times. “Whatever thought you think, good or bad, it’s coming from your mind. And, so, it materializes.”

On the left is a black-and-white photo of María Ambrocia Ruiz Gutiérrez when she was a young adult. On the right is a more recent photo of her in color. Behind the photos there is a needle and thread.

Location: Santa Cruz, Guanacaste, Costa Rica

María Ambrocia Ruiz Gutiérrez, 101, grew up on her family’s farm in Santa Cruz, in Costa Rica’s Guanacaste province, where her parents — and eight siblings — guided her. “My viejitos were very good,” Ruiz said, referring to her parents. Her advice: Learn by watching and listening to elders and others who love and support you.

Her father taught her to work the land, help with the vegetable garden, ride horses and tend to the cattle, pigs and chickens. Ruiz remembers her mother as caring and hard-working, making sure the children had nice clothes, which she would sew, and notebooks for school. “When we went out, she would tell us, ‘May God be with you, my little children. Behave well, don’t hurt anyone so that they don’t bother you,’” Ruiz said. “She didn’t want us to be spoiled.”

Ruiz cleaned people’s homes, worked on farms and, until recently, created and sewed dresses for traditional Guanacaste dancers.

Ruiz, who still lives in Santa Cruz, now has her own large family. A single parent to 10 children for most of her life, she’s a grandmother of 22, great-grandmother of 24, and great-great-grandmother of six.

A photo of Milly Skjordahl as a teen on the left, in black and white. On the right there is a more recent color photo of her.

When Milly Skjordahl was young, her father told her that she could do anything he could — as long as she worked hard. Skjordahl, who got her first job at 14, said she always did. But she lacked confidence and passed up opportunities because she didn’t think she was “good enough.”

Now 110, Skjordahl wishes she could tell her younger self to believe in herself. “I didn’t have self-confidence, but I should have had it,” she said. “In retrospect, I could have done almost anything.”

Skjordahl was born in 1913 in Hammond, Ind., in a poor family. She “couldn’t wait” to work, she said. During school holidays, she worked in a grocery store, where she made about 25 cents (less than $4.50 today) an hour. She gave most of her paycheck to her parents and kept a small amount for pocket money. At 16, Skjordahl graduated high school. “We didn’t have the money to go to college,” she said. “That was just a dream.”

She went on to work at the bicycle maker now known as Schwinn. She rose through the ranks and became one of the highest-paid woman there, she said. Her manager asked about taking on more responsibility. But, she said, she “gave them the impression that I’m happy where I am.” Growing up poor also made her feel like she wasn’t meant for greater things, she said. “I could have been a real career woman,” said Skjordahl, who quit her job to raise her sons. “But I just preferred to stay in the background.”

Now in an independent living community in Tucson, she keeps up with the news, visits friends and paints. Skjordahl’s advice to others: “Don’t be a slacker.”

On the left is a black-and-white photo of Betty Reid Soskin as a young adult. On the right is a more recent photo of her in her park ranger uniform.

Betty Reid Soskin worked as a clerk for a segregated labor union during World War II. With her first husband, she opened a record store that served the Black community in the Bay Area. She’s been a political activist since the 1960s and served as the oldest ranger in the National Park Service.

But she is reluctant to dispense specific advice, since she learned the most in life by just continuing to ask questions, she said, from her home in Richmond, Calif. “There’s so much to learn. We have a whole lifetime in order to figure out what those things are, and I am still learning, even at 102.” Life is about “asking the questions over and over again,” Soskin said. “And each time you ask them, they deepen.”

Soskin said she became a park ranger at age 85 because she wanted to tell people who visited the park where she worked, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/rori/index.htm" target=_blank>Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historic Park</a>, her story as a Black woman who lived through racial segregation during wartime.

“When I was 20, life was ahead of me. When I was 30, I still had life ahead of me,” Soskin said. “And I’m now 102, and life is still ahead of me.”

A photo of Mattie Clune as a child is on the left in black and white. On the right there is a more recent photo of her in color.

Matilda “Mattie” Clune, 102, has raised eight children, spent decades teaching fifth-graders, volunteered in her community and helped care for 17 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren. Clune, who lives in Oneonta, N.Y., said no matter how hectic life gets, it’s important to help people and show up for your loved ones. Her advice: “Live your life in a kind way. If you can, help somebody without making a big to-do about it,” she said. “Kindness always comes back to help you.”

When she was in her late 70s, Clune volunteered at the thrift store of a hospice. Then, when her husband was diagnosed with bone cancer, they needed the hospice’s support. He died in 2001, but she continued to volunteer there for 15 years. “It was a very rewarding experience for me,” she said.

Recently, Clune said, a friend said she brings “sunshine” wherever she goes. “I guess that sunshine helps brighten my day, too,” she said.

On the left is a photo of Paul Dudley as a young adult in his fire chief uniform. On the right is a more recent photo of him at a ceremony for his 100th birthday.

Forbes 30 Under 30, Media & Marketing Europe, 2020

Gracie Awards, Original Online News Programming, 2020

MHP 30 To Watch: Young Journalist Award, 2019

Georgetown University, Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service

Annabelle Timsit is a breaking news reporter for The Washington Post's London hub, covering news as it unfolds in the United States and around the world during the early morning hours in Washington.

Annabelle Timsit

University of Maryland, BA in journalism

Teddy Amenabar is a general assignment reporter for the Well+Being team covering internet trends.

Teddy Amenabar

SAJA Daniel Pearl Award 2022 (India under Surveillance)

SAJA Award for Business Reporting 2022 (Facebook under Fire)

Member of the team to win the George Polk Award for Technology Reporting 2021 (The Pegasus Project)

Honorable mention, SABEW Award 2021 (Facebook Papers)

New York Society for Professional Journalists Award, 2016

Radio Digital Television Network Foundation Fellow, 2016

Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation Scholar, 2015

Honorable mention, World Media Summit Global Awards, 2014

Toto Funds the Arts Award, 2013

Delhi University, BA in English

Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, MA in Journalism

Niha Masih is a reporter at The Washington Post's Seoul hub, where she covers breaking news in the United States and across the world. Previously, she was The Post's correspondent in India, where she covered the rise of majoritarian nationalism, conflict in Kashmir, the covid crisis and digital surveillance of citizens.

Niha Masih

City, University of London, BA in Journalism

Naomi Schanen is The Washington Post's breaking news reporter and video producer in London. She previously managed the live video desk at the Associated Press.

Naomi Schanen

After living 100 years, centenarians give their advice for a good life

the-washington-post

A GIF that switches between several collages showing black and white photos of a person when they were young, next to full color photos of them more recently.

 Chelsea Conrad/The Washington Post; iStock; Photos courtesy of the Alfred family; the Ruiz family; the Baker family; Ruby Rideout Photography; the Taylor family; the Hakoishi family; Kenji Fukushima.

The Washington Post

wb-centenarians share image

A collection of older and more recent family photos of people who are featured in the story. 

Chelsea Conrad/The Washington Post; iStock; Photos courtesy of Colin Bell; The Paldo family; Cynthia Mendolia; The Baker family; The Grewal family; Diara Melite Reid; Taylor Bernal; The Hakoishi family

Centenarians FINAL

Illustration by Chelsea Conrad/The Washington Post; iStock; Photos courtesy of Mark Vickers, the Grewal family, Diara Melite Reid, the Paldo family, the Ruiz family, the Hakoishi family, the Taylor family and the Baker family

Food

Fitness

Mind

Body

Life

Well+Being

washpost

Well+Being Life

Well+Being: Healthy Living

Stories about friendships, relationships and how to build a meaningful life from The Washington Post’s Well+Being section.

Well+Being from The Washington Post covers healthy living, including nutrition, fitness, mental health, relationships, chronic illness and disability.

They’ve lived 100 years. Here’s their advice about everything.

Choose the right life partner

Leonard Samuel ‘Sam’ Baker, 101

Read more from Well+Being