How to Live to 120

by Nancy Gertz

Liv Fun: Vol 6 – Issue 4

At the age of 97, Irving Silverman is emphatic that he’s not done with living. It’s going to take much longer to finish “giving back,” he proclaims.

Irving’s list of accomplishments includes a 45-year career at the National Knitwear Association, establishing and leading the Long Island chapter of Parents Without Partners, serving as President of the NY Region of the United Synagogue, and in 1980, leading an effort to allow Jews to emigrate from the Soviet Union.

“I want to be remembered as a philanthropist of ideas, as well as money. I hope to be appreciated as an example of what one person can accomplish in the short period of time we are privileged to inhabit this world. Living is wonderful, but leaving a legacy is even more wondrous,” he explains.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Irving after a recent profile in the Boston Globe featured his new book, Aging Wisely … Wisdom of Our Elders, a compelling collection of essays by 75 seniors and selected experts in aging.

I’ve always had a soft spot for the “older and wiser” folks in the world. Walking into Irving’s apartment on a sunny summer afternoon reminded me of when I was a young 16-year-old, excited to be able to drive so I could visit my grandmother all by myself. For me, an older person is an overflowing treasure chest, spilling fascinating stories and lustrous pearls of wisdom, knotted one by one over years of living this one life.

Irving is sight- and hearing-impaired, so we sat unusually close together, and I used a microphone so he could hear me. Though I approached the interview in the normal fashion, I quickly learned that I would be asking less and listening more.

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Liv Fun

by Leisure Care
Winter 2017
View Table of Contents

Life Can Be a Chukker
by Candace Wade

I ride, at age 63, in spite of two hip replacements. I quest for opportunities to mount horses. Then I write about them. This vocation may be “finger nails on the chalkboard” for those whose primary goal past a certain age is to work on their legacy. My credo is to keep my juices flowing by challenging myself. I do it on horseback.

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Dividing the Spoils
by Skye Moody

Is that thunder I hear, or me pounding my head against a doorframe? Crack. Crack. Crack. Until my niece pulls me away, and by then I’ve bequeathed myself a football player’s concussion. I don’t remember driving home. Later that evening, my younger sister phones to apologize for what she said, cruel words that triggered the head-banging.

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How to Live to 120
by Nancy Gertz

At the age of 97, Irving Silverman is emphatic that he’s not done with living. It’s going to take much longer to finish “giving back,” he proclaims. I had the pleasure of interviewing Irving after a recent profile in the Boston Globe featured his new book, Aging Wisely … Wisdom of Our Elders, a compelling collection of essays by 75 seniors and selected experts in aging.

Read More