WHAT I KNOW FOR SURE

Here’s what I know for sure. We have an opportunity like never before to live longer lives and to feel better than our parents did when they were over 50. As there is no turning back the clock, the goal as I see it is how best can we live these “golden years,” maintaining our quality of life and independence for as long as possible.

Women over 50 are the new pioneers. Colette Dowling in Red Hot Mamas, says: “Because no previous generation of midlife women had the luxury of seeing decades of productive time roll out before them, we who came of age with the women’s movement are in the position, once again, of having to do it for the first time.”

According to a New York Times article a few years ago, the strong likelihood that Baby Boomers will reach 100+ years of age is becoming a reality. Medical advances coupled with technological research will extend our life expectancies so much that many of us will easily reach 120. We might become the first generation of women to live 60 or so years beyond menopause! The length of time humans spend in adulthood has more than doubled since the early part of the 20th century making it possible for women to have 50 more years with their mates (or without them), 50 more years of watching their children grow old, of career choices, leisure time, physical challenges, opportunities to learn and 50 more years of trying to fund it all.

In an MSNBC article posted on the Internet entitled “Aging in America” writer Julie Winokur tells us: “The 20th century has given us the gift of longevity. In the past hundred years, life expectancy has increased by three decades, a phenomenon that is reshaping our families, attitudes, work lives and institutions. The proportion of older people in the United States also is growing---by mid-century old people will outnumber young people for the first time in history.”

Reaching age 100 is still considered news. However, in the next 50 years, as science, medicine, and bio-engineering extend the span of human life, 100th birthdays will lose their mystique. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, by about 2050, the number of centenarians in the U.S. could number close to 850,000 (from just 63,000 in 1900). Then again, if large numbers of Baby Boomers reach mid-life and beyond in good health, that number could explode to something like 4 million by 2050.