By Julie E 
Photo Credit ( Pixels )
Those who survive to celebrate their 100th birthday are members of a select group. Less than tenth of one percent of the population reaches triple digits, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The accomplishment has historically been acknowledged in the United States with a letter from the president. In the United Kingdom, the queen sends cards to residents when they turn 100, 105, and every age in between.
Despite reaching this milestone, these centenarians didn’t slow down. These are some of the things that the world’s wisest inhabitants did when they were becoming older.
- FINISHING A MARATHON
Although Fauja Singh doesn’t run the marathon course the fastest, he outpaces his contemporaries in terms of age. At the age of 100, the Brit of Indian descent became the oldest person to complete a marathon in 2011. (He says he was born before birth certificates were issued in India, hence Guinness World Records won’t acknowledge the achievement in the absence of official documentation.) After completing his first marathon at the age of 89, he had already finished eight. Even though he has since left the marathon scene, the 106-year-old still finds time to participate in shorter races.
- HEAVY CAMERA DIRECTION
Manoel de Oliveira was born two years after the first full-length motion picture debuted. In the end, he would mature into the industry’s oldest working filmmaker. A fascist regime in Portugal throughout the first half of De Oliveira’s life made it practically impossible for him to pursue a profession as a director. Finally free to develop his corpus of work, de Oliveira saw his government fall in 1974. After turning fifty-five, he produced twenty-seven feature pictures, the last of which being The Strange Case of Angelica (2010). The screenplay’s initial draft was written in 1952, which is 58 years before De Oliveira, at 102 years old, was able to eventually film it. The director continued to make short films until his death at the age of 106, even after he had given up on creating feature films.
- VOGUE MODELING
Bo Gilbert broke down limits of age when, at the age of 100, she modeled for the centennial issue of British Vogue. A casting agency came across the inhabitant of Birmingham, UK in The Evesham Journal, a local publication that highlighted Gilbert on her 100th birthday. Although she worked at a cardboard box factory for the majority of her working years, this picture shoot was her first professional modeling experience. Despite this, fashion has always played a significant role in her life. Gilbert told Vogue that she always dresses for herself and never gets dressed up for guys. She never leaves her apartment without her heels and makeup on.
- Getting a diploma from a high school
Lela Burden was old enough, at 111, to be the great-grandmother of most of the graduates of Booker T. Washington High School. However, she went to the Norfolk, Virginia school with them in 2014 to pick up her high school certificate. Her high school was closed in 1918 due to a flu outbreak, delaying the achievement by 96 years. Burden was working two jobs when the school reopened, so he was unable to go back. Having raised a family and read the newspaper daily for her entire life, she finally earned the honor that had eluded her as a youngster. Burden was the 35th oldest person alive at the time of her death in 2015.
- GETTING A BOOK OUT
Bertha Wood, a native of the United Kingdom, had a wealth of material when she decided to write her memoirs at the age of 90. Eventually, she focused her book, Fresh Air and Fun: The Story of a Blackpool Holiday Camp, on her days spent managing a holiday resort with her husband. Wood turned 100 years old on June 20, 2005, the day the story was released. Having being the world’s oldest debut author, she passed away in 2007.
- SKYDIVING
William Verdun Hayes had no intention of retiring to a tranquil old age. The British World War II veteran leaped out of an aircraft to commemorate becoming 100 years old. A year later, he went skydiving once more to set the record for the oldest tandem skydiver. Hayes beat the previous record holder by more than a month when he successfully performed the 15,000-foot jump at the age of 101 years and 38 days.
- WINNING THE MT. FUJI
Teiichi Igarashi began climbing Mount Fuji as an annual habit in his latter years, and he saw no need to stop after he became 100. The retired lumberjack made history in 1987 when he climbed to the summit of the 12,385-foot mountain as the first centenarian. Along with him on every walk was a picture of his late wife, along with seven out of his ten children and three out of his thirty-six grandchildren. He rested every three minutes or so, the AP reports, and wore thick socks without shoes. To rehydrate, he ate raw eggs instead of drinking water.
- PERFORMING WITH FILM STARS
What is the connection between Amy Schumer, Alfred Hitchcock, and Charlie Chaplin? The oldest active actor in Hollywood, Norman Lloyd, has collaborated with them on several films. Since his 1939 television debut, Lloyd has been a busy participant in the entertainment business. His acting credits include Dead Poets Society (1989), St. Elsewhere, and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. When he was 100 years old, the comedy Trainwreck, his most recent picture, made its debut. Even at 102, he continues to get acting roles: In the 2018 TV series Fly, Lloyd will play Captain Edwin Swan in his next role.
- APPEARING IN A PRISON
Most people strive to avoid getting jailed, but for 102-year-old Edie Simms, it was a top priority on her bucket list. She fulfilled her desire in October 2016 when she was led into the back of the St. Louis Police Department’s patrol car while wearing handcuffs. The authorities took her to the nearby Five Star Senior Center, a retirement community that Simms frequently donates to, rather than putting her in jail. She was eventually able to personally give her hand-knit scarves, socks, and eyeglass cases to the residents with the police officers at her side.
- BURNING A TOWN WITH YARN
Grace Brett turned her passion for knitting into a small-scale act of vandalism at the age of 104. She covered the public areas of her town in vibrant knitwear, assisted by the other members of the naughty Scottish knitters known as the “Souter Stormers.” On the day of the prank, neighbors discovered that their fences, lampposts, and benches had all been sweater-bombed. Brett even included little yarn-made dolls and cottages in several of his designs. She told The Daily Record that she “thought the town looked lovely” when the deed was completed.