This Exclusive Club Has One Requirement: 110 Birthday Candles
SEAL BEACH, Calif. -- Marion Higgins can recite the alphabet backwards, a skill she says her father taught her in the 1890s. She clearly recalls her first train trip, which she dates to 1895, and her first barnstorming airplane ride in 1923.
Her memories are marvelous, but can she prove she's really 111 years 244 days old?
It turns out she can, which for investigators at the nonprofit Gerontology Research Group makes her a real find -- what they call "a validated supercentenarian." To join this club, one must be 110 or older. As of today, there are 61 documented living members in the world.
GRG's 40 volunteers -- a loose, international network of demographers, gerontologists, epidemiologists and self-styled "hobbyists" -- are dedicated to verifying the ages of the world's oldest people, and to learning the secrets of their longevity. But to do so, they must contend with dishonest schemers, governments that gleefully support false claims and what researchers call "the invisible barrier of 115."
Because almost no one who reaches age 114 ever sees 115, the group is skeptical of any claims to ages higher than that. GRG investigators dismiss a man now being celebrated in Cuba who says he is 124 but who has no documents. A woman in the Caribbean island nation of Dominica supposedly was 128 when she died in 2003. Her ripe old age was "a falsehood perpetrated by the tourism industry there," says GRG co-founder L. Stephen Coles, a physician and stem-cell researcher at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, where GRG is based. GRG counts just 12 undisputed cases of people ever reaching 115.
Meanwhile, a Maryland man named William Coates got national publicity last year before he died, allegedly at 114. He turned out to be a mere 92. "We had so much information that he was lying," says Robert Young, GRG's senior claims investigator. "He was listed as eight years old in the 1920 Census and 18 in the 1930 Census."
Ms. Higgins, however, is the real thing, the GRG says. Birth and marriage certificates show she was born on June 26, 1893. A sharp, lucid and remarkably healthy woman, she lives with a caregiver in the Leisure World retirement community here. She has grandchildren older than many fellow residents are. She accounts for her longevity by saying, "I never had enough money to engage in riotous living."
That's a typical explanation among her ancient peers, says Dr. Coles. "None of the supercentenarians know why they lived so long, but they feel compelled to give answers that are funny and satisfying." Earlier this month, Dr. Coles visited Ms. Higgins, in part to ask permission to help conduct her autopsy when she dies. Her 82-year-old son, Horace, said that would be OK.
The 14-year-old GRG, which the "Guinness World Records Book" now relies on to confirm longevity records, counts 55 women and six men over age 110 world-wide and suspects 200 more are unaccounted for.
U.S. Census figures show about 50,000 Americans are over age 100, with 1,388 over 110. Many respondents to the Census are wishful thinkers, impostors, pranksters, or younger folks still cashing their late grandparents' Social Security checks, the GRG says. "We ask people their ages and take them at their word," says a Census spokesman.
Some old people (and their families) exaggerate ages for attention or publicity. Old people often feel ignored and discarded, says GRG's Mr. Young, a 30-year-old former Census worker. "But if you say you're 120 in a small village, suddenly, people pay attention."
In 2003, retired clarinet-player Habib Miyan of India, who claimed to be 132, rode a wave of publicity that led admirers to provide an all-expenses-paid pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. He had no birth records.
Susie Brunson, a child of freed slaves, got a call from President Reagan on what she claimed was her 115th birthday in 1986. When she died in 1994, media reports put her age at 123. But GRG research into early Social Security records now indicates she was probably 105 when she died.
Before he died in Mississippi in 2002, Edward Bankhead claimed he was born in 1883, making him 119. GRG found his World War I draft card, which said he was born in 1899.
Supported by small donations and thousands of volunteer hours, GRG also uses baptismal certificates and painstaking maiden-name computer searches to track down proof or refute lies, especially in nations with spotty records. Old Bibles with family birth dates scribbled inside front covers are usually rejected as documentation.
The oldest human ever certified was a French woman who died at age 122 in 1997. Details on real and fraudulent supercentenarians, past and present, are updated weekly at
www.grg.org. Having spent four decades studying aging issues, Dr. Coles, 63, is among those who see 115 as a barrier that almost nobody can cross. Since 2001, a dozen 114-year-olds died before turning 115. "We've seen it in every culture and civilization we track," says Dr. Coles. According to the GRG, the oldest person alive today -- a woman in the Netherlands -- is 114 years 241 days old.
By accumulating data on supercentenarians, GRG researchers have found many shared characteristics. Though these people are usually hard of hearing and nearly blind, with very thin skin and limited senses of smell and taste, most of them rarely saw a doctor before age 90. Throughout their lives, most made no conscious effort to eat nutritiously, exercise or avoid drinking and smoking. None were fat at any time in their lives. Almost all had long-lived relatives, suggesting that the secret is in their genes, not their lifestyle.
Families of supercentenarians, and their doctors, often resist allowing autopsies. "She died of old age," they say. "What more do you need to know?"
"Plenty," argues Dr. Coles. He recently conducted an autopsy of a woman who died at 112. "I held her heart in my hands, her brain in my hands," he says. "We looked at every organ under a microscope." The autopsy showed she likely died of a chemical imbalance in her immune system. Dr. Coles believes that if doctors find answers about superlongevity, the pharmaceutical industry will develop drugs to help the oldest of us survive longer.
At age 111, Ms. Higgins fits the supercentenarian profile. She was never fat, rarely went to doctors (she takes no medications now), and her dad lived to 101.
At 102, she self-published a book about her life as a farm girl, amateur singer and early widow. Just this month, from her wheelchair, she was guest speaker at the Leisure World Kiwanis Club.
She insists she's "not ambitious to be the oldest person in the world." Besides, by some measures, she still feels young. "I hear there are people in China who are over 130," she says. 寻找“超级寿星”
马里恩?希金斯 (Marion Higgins) 能倒背字母表。她说，这是她父亲 19 世纪 90 年代教给她的。她清楚记得第一次坐火车是 1895 年，第一次飞机旅行 -- 一次值得大讲特讲的经历 -- 是在 1923 年。
她的记忆力让人吃惊，不过她能证明自己的年龄真的是 111 岁零 244 天吗？
事实证明她能。非盈利组织老人医学研究小组 (Gerontology Research Group, GRG) 经过核实，证明她是名副其实的百岁老人，他们称她为“一个货真价实的超级寿星”。只有 110 岁以上的老人才有资格加入这个俱乐部。截至目前，全球共有 61 位仍然健在的、有档案证明的老人符合这一要求。
GRG 的 40 名志愿工作者包括人口统计学家、老人医学家、流行病学家和一些自称是“爱好者”的人，他们构成一个松散的全球网路，致力于核查世界上最长寿者的年龄，并研究这些老人的长寿秘诀。不过要完成这些任务，他们经常要和一些不诚实的家伙以及乐于提供虚假证明的政府周旋，还要应对被研究者称为“ 115 岁的无形障碍”的问题。
由于几乎没有几个满 114 岁的老人能活到 115 岁，因此该机构对任何声称年龄大于 115 岁的人都表示怀疑。比如， GRG 就没有认可古巴一位据说已有 124 岁高龄的男寿星，因为他拿不出证明文件。加勒比岛国多明尼加有个老婆婆在 2003 年去世时据说已有 128 岁，然而 GRG 联合创办人史蒂文?科尔斯 (L. Stephen Coles) 说，她的年龄是当地旅行社捏造出来的数字。科尔斯是 GRG 所在的加州大学洛杉矶分校 (UCLA) 大卫?格芬医学院 (David Geffen School of Medicine) 的内科医生和干细胞研究员。 GRG 目前只统计到 12 个有确凿证据证明其年龄超过 115 岁的老寿星。
去年，马里兰州一名叫威廉?科茨 (William Coates) 的男士去世前受到全美传媒的关注，他去世时据说是 114 岁，但后来发现只有 92 岁。“我们有大量资料可以证明他撒谎，” GRG 高级调查员罗伯特?扬 (Robert Young) 说。“ 1920 年人口普查登记他是 8 岁， 1930 的普查登记他是 18 岁。”
然而， GRG 说，希金斯太太是货真价实的寿星。其出生证和结婚证都显示她出生于 1893 年 6 月 26 日。希金斯太太手脚灵活、思路清晰、身体特别健康。她住在当地的 Leisure World 退休社区，有专人照顾。她的孙子比住在那里的许多老人年纪还大。在解释长寿的秘诀时，她说：“我一直没有足够的钱过奢侈的生活。”
科尔斯说，这也是跟希金斯太太一样长寿的老人常常给出的解释。“这些百岁老人没有一个知道为什么自己能活这么长，硬要他们说秘诀，他们的答案往往很有趣，且让人听了很满意。” 科尔斯最近拜访了希金斯太太，部分目的是请求她允许在她死后让研究员做尸体解剖。她 82 岁的儿子贺瑞斯 (Horace) 表示同意。
GRG 已经有 14 年历史，目前连《吉尼斯世界记录大全》 (Guinness World Records Book) 也要依赖它来确认长寿记录。 GRG 已经统计到全世界有 55 个女性和 6 个男性年龄在 110 岁以上，另有 200 多人无法找到证明其年龄在 110 岁以上。
美国人口普查资料显示，超过 100 岁的美国人有 5 万人，超过 110 岁的有 1,388 人。但 GRG 称，许多接受普查的人要么是渴望长寿的幻想家，要么是冒名顶替和开玩笑的，或者是那些还在支取其去世祖父母留下的社会保险救济金的家伙。“在询问年龄的时候，人们说什么我们就记什么，”普查发言人说。
某些老人（和他们的家庭）夸大岁数是为了吸引他人或公众的注意。 GRG 的扬说，老年人经常会感到自己被冷落或是被抛弃。 30 岁的扬以前也当过普查员。“不过，在一个小村庄里，如果你说自己有 120 岁，一下子就会有很多人注意你。”
2003 年，声称自己有 132 岁的印度退休单簧管乐手哈比卜?米扬 (Habib Miyan) 成为媒体大肆报导的对象，许多崇拜者凑集一笔资金供他到沙特朝圣，费用全包。但米扬并没有出生证明。
苏茜?布伦森 (Susie Brunson) 是一对被解放的奴隶的孩子。 1986 年，在据称是她 115 岁生日的那天，她接到里根 (Reagan) 总统的电话。她 1994 年去世，当时媒体报导她有 123 岁。但是 GRG 对她早年的社会保险记录进行了调查，记录显示她去世时可能只有 105 岁。
爱德华?班克黑德 (Edward Bankhead) 去世之前声称自己生于 1883 年，因此当他 2002 在密西西比州去世时应该有 119 岁。然而 GRG 找到他一战时期的征兵卡，上面显示他的出生时间是 1899 年。
GRG 靠小额捐赠和志愿者的大量工作时间来维持运转。它也参考洗礼证明、使用电脑对女性娘家姓进行繁琐的搜索等方法来核对证明或反驳虚假的声明，尤其是在那些档案记录不全的国家。在《圣经》封面背后潦草记录的家庭成员出生日期一般都被认为是无效的证明。
得到确认的最长寿的人是一个 1997 年去世的一位法国女士，她活到了 122 岁。
www.grg.org 每周更新一次百岁老人的详细资料，真正的和假冒的、过去和现在的都有。
在老龄问题上研究了 40 年的科尔斯今年 63 岁，他跟其他一些研究者一样，认为 115 岁是一个几乎无人能逾越的年龄槛。自 2001 年以来，有十多个 114 岁的老人没能活到 115 岁就去世了。“我们在追踪的所有文化和社会中都发现了这一点，”科尔斯说。根据 GRG 的记录，目前健在的年龄最大的人是一个荷兰女士，现年 114 岁零 241 天。
GRG 研究员在积累百岁老人的资料时发现他们许多共同的特征。虽然这些老人一般听力很差，几乎失明，皮肤很薄，嗅觉和味觉都不怎么灵敏，但他们中的大部分在 90 岁以前都很少看医生。在整个一生中，他们大多数人都没有有意识地去吃有营养的食品、锻炼身体或避免喝酒吸烟。所有这些人一生从来都没有肥胖过。几乎所有的老寿星都有长寿的亲戚，这意味著长寿的秘诀在于基因，而不是生活方式。
高寿老人的家人和医生往往不允许解剖尸体。“她是因为年纪太大才去世的，”他们说，“你还需要知道些什么呢？”
“很多东西，”科尔斯争辩说。他最近对一名 112 岁去世的女性进行了解剖。“我研究了她的心脏，还有她的大脑，”他说。“我们用显微镜观察每一个器官。”尸体解剖显示，免疫系统中的化学元素不平衡导致了她的死亡。科尔斯相信，如果医生能找到超长寿的秘诀，制药工业就能开发出药物来帮助我们当中那些最长寿的人活得更久些。
111 岁的希金斯太太非常符合百岁老人的特点。她没有肥胖的经历，很少看医生（现在还没有接受药物治疗），而且她的父亲也活到了 101 岁。
102 岁的时候，她自己出版了一本书，讲述她的人生经历：从农场姑娘到业余歌手，再到年轻守寡。最近，她还作为 Leisure World Kiwanis Club 俱乐部的嘉宾，在轮椅上做了一次演讲。
她坚持说“无意成为世界上最长寿的人”。另外，某种程度来说，她感觉自己仍然年轻。“我听说中国有人超过 130 岁，”她说。
