Lifestyle Inspirational Seniors Who Keep Going 9/17/2024 | By Terri L. Jones “Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves?” wrote philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. These inspirational seniors keep going strong, showing how we can all keep boredom at bay. Before the summer Olympics in Paris this year, athlete Florence Meiler got media attention. Meiler’s sport is the decathlon, which has yet to be approved for women at the Olympic level (ostensibly because women aren’t strong enough to compete in the pole vault). However, female athletes, including 90-year-old Meiler herself, have been disproving this for years. Meiler didn’t even take up track and field until the age of 60, when a friend noticed her athletic ability while she was playing tennis with her husband. The friend begged Meiler to join their masters track team. They needed someone for the long jump, and Meiler, who grew up on a dairy farm and had been active all her life, seemed like a good candidate. Thirty years later, after adding the other nine events of the decathlon to her repertoire, Meiler has won approximately 1,500 medals. She even set a world record in her age group for the event that has stood in the way of female decathletes trying to reach the Olympics: the pole vault! “I’m really pushing for the ladies’ decathlon [in 2028],” Meiler says. “If I can do this at 90, there are a lot of other ladies who can do this in their 20s!” 5 inspirational seniors When it comes to senior achievers, Meiler is in good company. Meet several other older adults who have refused to rest on their laurels because of their age. Summiting mountains Beverly Battle, who is 81, hikes three to four miles every other day with her partner, Joan. Two years ago, the day after their best friend passed away, the couple hiked to the summit of Mt. LeConte in Tennessee (about 5.5 miles), which is the third highest peak in the Smokies, to remember their friend. Spending the night in a lodge at the top of the mountain, the couple made the descent the next morning. Battle recalls, “The descent the next day was foggy, wet, cold and strenuous … but exhilarating!” Pursuing education Nola Ochs became the oldest college graduate at 95 when she received a bachelor’s degree from Fort Hays State University, Kansas, graduating with her 21-year-old granddaughter. After graduating, she appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She went on to earn her master’s degree and become a graduate teaching assistant at 100. Refusing to slow down At 87, Tao Porchon-Lynch fell and broke her hip, which required a hip replacement. Her doctor told the lifelong yoga enthusiast that she’d need to slow down after the surgery. However, a month later she took up ballroom dancing, and by 93, she was winning dance competitions, while also teaching 12 yoga classes a week. After her surgery, Porchon-Lynch sent her doctor a photo of herself in a yoga pose where she had lifted herself off the ground and was balanced on her hands with her legs crossed. The accompanying note said, “I just wanted to show you that there’s nothing you can’t do.” Taking the plunge World War II veteran Mohr Keet bungee-jumped 708 feet off the Bloukrans Bridge in Western Cape, South Africa, at age 96, becoming the world’s oldest bungee jumper. As he reached the bottom of the cord and began to rebound back, Keet says his heart was pounding with excitement and adrenaline. Keet proclaimed the jump to be one of the most thrilling experiences of his life! Be an inspiration: 5 ways to volunteer from home Documenting war memories When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, 19-year-old sailor Jim Downing provided aid to the injured on his ship, the West Virginia, also writing down messages from the wounded and trying to remember the names on the dog tags of those who were killed. As postmaster of the ship, he conveyed these messages to the families as well as informed them of their loved ones’ conditions. At 102, two years before his death, Downing wrote about his experiences in “The Other Side of Infamy: My Journey Through Pearl Harbor and the World of War.” Some seniors’ accomplishments don’t involve athleticism, creativity, or intellectual abilities. Instead, they are feats of determination, courage, and strength. There’s the 88-year-old woman who still plays the slot machines, despite swollen legs from congestive heart failure and spinal stenosis causing severe back pain, and the man who at 85 fractured 11 ribs but manages to power through an hour on a stationary bike two or three times per week. And then there’s my 70-year-old friend who has bursitis in her hips but walks five miles almost every day. Her license plate says “KEEPMVG.” If you were to ask any of them the secret to their extraordinary achievements at their advanced age, they may tell you: they don’t let their age stop them! Read More Terri L. Jones Terri L. Jones has been writing educational and informative topics for the senior industry for over 10 years, and is a frequent and longtime contributor to Seniors Guide.