Good news for oldies ... sort of good news

Death doesn’t usually fall in the area of good or encouraging news, but for oldies there is a bright side to the sad passing of two international ancients.

Richard Overton left the world the other day aged one hundred and twelve! And yet it wasn’t very

long ago that for a man to reach 75 was considered to be quite an achievement.

The present average life span in UK is 80.9 years, compared to 82.3 in Canada, and 78.9 years in the US.

Under the present administration, life across the Pond probably feels very much longer than it is.

We look to Japan for the really long-livers, but surprisingly the average is just a little more than ours – 83.9.

No long illness

Richard Overton differed from many other oldies – it’s probably acceptable to refer to a 112-year-old in that way.

He didn’t have a long illness to endure. He went to hospital with pneumonia, was released, and soon left the planet.

He volunteered to join the US army in World War 2 to in his 30s and apparently served at Pearl Harbour after the Japanese attack in 1941. Richard told the media more than once that his long life was helped by cigars and whisky. It was said that even well into his 100s, he would drive widows in his neighbourhood to church, which might well encourage a certain Royal here.

Born July 1905

Then this week, the oldest bloke in the world died peacefully from what his family described as ‘natural causes’. He died in his family hot springs inn in northern Japan.

Masazo Nonaka was 113….. Continues on the blogs for my ocean adventuring book, Sailing to Purgatory, at  SailingToPurgatory.com