The United Nations has designated October 1 International Day for Older Persons to raise awareness of issues affecting the elderly and to appreciate the contributions that older people make to society.

You get old and you realize there are no answers, just stories.

Garrison Keillor

The longest documented life was that of Jeanne Louise Calment (21 February 1875 – 4 August 1997) who lived to be 122. At age 85, she took up fencing, and at 100 she was still riding a bicycle. She was in good shape and able to walk until she fractured her femur a 114, and forced to use a wheelchair.

Calment was neither athletic nor fanatical about her health. She started smoking at the age of 21 and smoked until the age of 117, only five years before her death. (Although according to an unspecified source, she smoked no more than two cigarettes per day.)

She ascribed her longevity and relatively youthful appearance to olive oil, which she said she poured on all her food and rubbed onto her skin, as well as a diet of port wine. She ate nearly one kilo of chocolate every week.