According to the U.S. Census Bureau, centenarians (people living 100 years or more) are the fastest growing segment of the American population.
The Washington state Office of Financial Management (OFM) states that in 2000, there were approximately 146 (30 male and 116 female) centenarians living in Seattle. The OFM office estimates that number to be higher today.
With all of the advancements in technology, nutrition and medicine in the United States, it seems logical that our citizens are living longer. However, research shows there are more centenarians everywhere, in both more and less developed regions of the globe.
According to the Administration on Aging, "In the United States, the 2001 Census Bureau estimated that there were more than 48,427 individuals over 100.
"The United Nations estimates that in 2000, there were 180,000 centenarians throughout the world. By 2050, this number is projected to number 3.2 million...[with] 68 percent projected in the developed world," it continued.
One centenarian and a soon-to-be centenarian who live at the Ida Culver House Broadview and University House at Wallingford retirement communities in North Seattle, respectively, shared amazing stories and insights that are an inspiration to all.
Both attribute their longevity to genetics and a positive outlook on life.
Claire Breslich
On June 14, Claire Breslich turned 101. She lives at the Nursing Care Center at Ida Culver House Broadview retirement community.
She grew up on a farm in Burlington, Wash. "Life was slow. We had no money after my father was killed in a railroad accident and left my mother to raise us five kids," she said.
Breslich was the youngest of five children and recalls helping around the farm. She has fond memories of roller-skating with her older sister.
When Breslich turned 18, she and her sister moved to Seattle to attend business school. They lived in Ballard and worked at a bank.
She met and married her husband in the late 1920s, and the couple moved to a logging camp.
"My husband was a Washington-state engineer. He was responsible for watching for fires in the forest, so we moved to the mountains and lived in the camp with the loggers," Breslich said. "We lived there for seven years."
While living at the camp, she and her husband had three children. "I learned to sew by making diapers and clothes for my babies," Breslich reminisced. "There is so much we take for granted today."
Juliet Rawlings
Later this year, Juliet Rawlings will celebrate her 100th birthday.
She spent nearly all her life on the East Coast, coming to the Northwest in the late 1980s from Naples, Fla.
In the mid 1920s, Rawlings met and married her husband, Warren. "We got our first radio after we were married," she recalled.
Rawlings and her husband moved to Washington to be near two of her three children - a daughter on Orcas and a son in Bellevue.
"We moved to Issaquah first. It seemed like wild country back then, compared to Flori-da," Rawlings said with her infectious laugh.
She believes more people are living 100 years and more because "it's the way you utilize your genes, and it helps to have retirement communities to watch over older people," she said.
Rawlings stays active by walking the hallways and working on her woodcarvings, which have been on display in the University House at Wall-ingford art exhibits.
"Juliet has lived here for seven years, and up until last year, she always took the stairs," said Marla Becker, University House community director, with a smile.
"It just does-n't seem possible," Rawlings said, that she will celebrate her 100th birthday soon.
Leslie O'Brien works for ERA Care retirement communities. Her Senior Style column appears the last week of everyother month. E-mail her at needitor@nwlink. com.[[In-content Ad]]
