GRAND Magazine - Winter 2024 - 16

aging
There's also the obvious social benefit of
marriage as an antidote to loneliness, at least
in happy unions. (It's not an exact science:
Researchers investigating the role of marriage
in longevity acknowledge some built-in
selection bias since physically and
mentally healthy people are
more likely to marry in the first
place.)
A wild card in all this is the
stubbornly high divorce rate
among baby boomers, who are drivTension
and conflict in marriage are stand-up
comedy staples, but studies have shown that
those of us who endure the vicissitudes of life
with a partner experience less stress than those
who go solo. Couples have greater life expectancy
free of disability and other health challenges
than singles. And they tend to have more
financial security, despite what my bemused
father told me on the eve of my wedding:
" Remember, Bill, two can live as cheaply as one
- for half as long. "
16 GRAND WINTER 2023
ing the coming wave of centenarians. Despite
a decline since 1980 in the overall U.S. divorce
rate, it's up among those over 50, and over
the past half-century, it has tripled among
Americans aged 65 and older.
Sociologists and gerontologists call this phenomenon
" gray divorce, " and it's unclear what
if any effect it will have as those who've consciously
uncoupled approach old age alone. No
two divorces are alike. Some enjoying newfound
freedom from the toxic stress of a combative
marriage may add to their life spans; others suddenly
thrust into the strain of solitude may die
before their time.
It's not the sex, the tax deductions, or even the
cohabitation that make marriage so beneficial.
Deep platonic friendships can have the same
effect.
At an assisted living facility in Montana, two
centenarians have found beauty and meaning
in a relationship that's blossomed around their
shared love of poetry. Bob Yaw is 101; Gloria
Hansard is 100. They live down the hall from
each other but gather each evening in her apartment
to recite verses. " We didn't meet long ago, "
Hansard tells the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. " Just
poems are all we know of each other. "
Their friendship is life-giving and beautiful,
with a soundtrack straight out of Frank Sinatra's
" Young at Heart " :
And if you should survive to 105
Look at all you'll derive
Out of being alive
Excerpted from THE BIG 100:
The New World of Super-Aging
William J. Kole recently retired a
New England editor for The Associated
Press, is an award-winning
foreign correspondent.
Listen to Sinatra
sing Young at
Heart

https://www.facebook.com/GRANDmagazine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZRn4auk4PQ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352827320302792?via%3Dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352827320302792?via%3Dihub https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZRn4auk4PQ https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/poetic-friendship-at-100-and-101-a-bond-formed-through-verse/article_4b21a1c2-5c66-11ed-a29d-0fa3bc6498a4.html https://www.aarp.org/home-family/friends-family/info-2023/gray-divorce-trend.html https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+big+100&crid=3D2AS92S70CQP&sprefix=the+big+100%2Caps%2C158&linkCode=ll2&tag=grandmagazi0d-20&linkId=c7a8071f7cc98d9f8d4eee3eb81ba426&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+big+100&crid=3D2AS92S70CQP&sprefix=the+big+100%2Caps%2C158&linkCode=ll2&tag=grandmagazi0d-20&linkId=c7a8071f7cc98d9f8d4eee3eb81ba426&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl

GRAND Magazine - Winter 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of GRAND Magazine - Winter 2024