SECRETS – HOW TO LIVE TO 100

Five neighbors at a central Missouri retirement community who are all centenarians get asked all the time: “How did you live to be 100?

If you want to live to 100 or more, this rare group of five golden girls says the key to longevity is working hard at a job you love and taking care of your body while you’re at it. Even though an estimated 70,000 people in the country are currently at the century mark or beyond in age; to find five 100-year-olds living in one place is unusual.

The average life span of Americans is about two or three years short of an 80th birthday party. And most people don’t want to cut out coffee, soda, alcohol, cigarettes and eat healthy.

“People tell me all the time, ‘I don’t want to live to be 100,'” said Mildred Leaver, who turned 100 in June.

Her four centenarian friends at the Rolla Presbyterian Manor retirement community shook their primped gray heads in agreement. They hear it too: “Who wants to live to 100?”

When centenarian Mildred Leaver was asked that queston …she replied, “A person that’s 99.”