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80 is the new 50: City seniors
are not the retiring type: Census data
By
Heidi Evans, New York Daily News
April 29, 2012
Image
Credit: Susan Watts, New York Daily News
Helen Hamlin, still going
strong at 89, is so busy as
International Federation on Ageing’s
representative to the UN that she
barely has time to see her children
and grandchildren.
Retire at 65? They’d sooner die.
Thousands of New Yorkers are working decades
past Social Security eligibility, into their 80s and
even their 90s, keeping their minds sharp and their
bodies moving.
A bookkeeper who commutes four hours a day
into Manhattan, a grandma who keeps pace with
diplomats at the United Nations, an octogenarian who
runs around after 7-year-olds all day.
They represent the new longevity — awesome
over 80 — living healthier and working longer than
their peers of previous generations.
While people older than 75 make up just 1% of
the nation’s workforce, that age group accounts for
the most dramatic rise in employment — a 158% uptick
since 1990, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics
reports.
Of 11.6 million people older than 75 in 1990,
about 4% — or 487,000 — were employed. By 2011,
there were nearly 18 million people older than 75,
and 7%, or 1.2 million superseniors, were working.
In New York, there are more than 9,000 people
older than 80 on the job, a slight increase from 20
years earlier. And 734 of them were 90 or older,
census data show.
“When you look at the past two decades, there has
been a change in the paradigm of retirement,” said
AARP’s New York spokesman Luci DeHaan.
“It was assumed people would retire at 65, move to
another climate, take a step back and ‘enjoy’ their
life. What you are seeing now is people living
healthy longer and choosing to stay in their
communities and work. They want to stay involved.”
Nir Barzilai, a geneticist at Albert Einstein
College of Medicine in the Bronx who studies
centenarians and their children, has found longevity
genes in people with at least one parent or sibling
who have lived past 80.
What makes them fascinating is how medically
boring they are. They typically have no major
age-related illnesses, and medical advances take
care of cancer or heart disease that crops up late
in life.
“My view is that if you do everything the doctor
suggests — watch your weight, don’t smoke, get
exercise — you are more likely to live till you are
80,” said Barzilai, who is director of Einstein’s
Institute for Aging Research.
“In order to have a very successful and exceptional
longevity, however, you have to have more than that.
You have to have some genes that protect you from
aging and age-related diseases like cancer,
Alzheimer’s, heart disease and diabetes.
“Those longevity genes are protective against many
of the environmental things that kill other people —
obesity, smoking and alcohol. I've had people in my
study who smoked for 90 years, and dozens who are
overweight.
“They have those protective genes,” added Barzilai.
“The rest of us have to follow doctor’s orders.”
Former Mayor Ed Koch has both longevity genes and
lives a healthful life — despite his love of ice
cream and Chinese food.
At 87, he has remained in his Greenwich
Village apartment and is still working at full tilt:
He puts in a full day at his midtown law firm, and
is also a political commentator, movie critic and
restaurant reviewer.
“I believe that the brain is like a muscle — if you
don’t use it regularly, it atrophies. Thank God my
brain is not atrophied,” said Koch, who underwent
lifesaving quadruple bypass surgery in 2009. “My
head is fresh. Except for a balance problem, I don’t
feel old.”
Is Hizzoner considering retiring anytime soon?
“No!” he bellowed from his car phone. “I expect to
die in my sleep or at my desk. Either one is okay.
“I appreciate every day when I wake up because it’s
an extra day from God. I use it to the maximum.”
Helen
Hamlin, 89
She’s a globetrotting gray panther.
As the International Federation on Ageing’s
representative to the United Nations, Helen Hamlin
barely has time to see her kids and grandkids.
Her appointment book is filled with daily meetings
and evening events from the six boards she sits on,
advocating for the rights of the elderly and women.
She was in Madrid in 2002, Melbourne, Australia, in
2010, Copenhagen a few months ago. Next month, she
is off to Prague for the 11th Global Conference on
Aging.
She still drives — though not at night. And she
takes the subway every day.
The Bronx-born mother of three and grandmother of
five thinks her good health and bionic energy runs
in the family — her mom lived to 92. “I think genes
have something to do with it. And wanting to be of
service,” said Hamlin, a retired social worker.
“And just being with younger people helps keep me
young.”
On weekends and evenings, Hamlin is a culture
vulture: theater, museums, concerts.
“I love movies but haven’t been able to get to too
many,” she said. “I’m too busy.”
Surprisingly, she was a sickly child and smoked a
pack of cigarettes a day from 1938 until 1963. But
her only health issue is a little osteoporosis in
her left hip.
Her advice to New Yorkers who want to follow in her
brisk footsteps: Stay busy and take good care of
yourself. Go to the doctor and insist on answers.
“I am a very lucky lady,” she said. “I would love to
live to 115.”
Nora Diaz,
81
Everyone at Public School 10 in Brooklyn calls her
“grandma,” but the only thing old about Nora Diaz is
the date on her birth certificate.
She’ll be 82 next month, but feels like 50 — and
good thing, since she’s a full-time classroom
volunteer surrounded by energetic second-graders.
At the Park Slope school, Diaz puts in five days a
week, on her feet in New Balance sneakers from 8
a.m. to 3 p.m.
Diaz, who came here from Puerto Rico in 1952, does
everything from making curtains for classrooms,
sewing on lost buttons, helping students with
spelling and homework, and doling out hugs. She even
cooks lunch for the teachers.
“I love the children and they give me life,” she
said.
There’s little rest on weekends. It’s church at 9
a.m., then off to the laundermat and shopping with
her 87-year-old sister.
“I have no aches and pains and I still have my
teeth!” she boasted.
Henry
Carlen, 89
Henry Carlen has a daily routine that would make a
man half his age plotz.
He’s up at 3 a.m. to make the 5 a.m. bus from Toms
River, N.J., to the Port Authority Bus Terminal.
Then it’s two stops on the E train to reach the
world-famous Carnegie Deli on W. 55th Street.
He climbs three flights to his office above the
bustling eatery, ready to work by 7 am.
Carlen has been Carnegie’s full-time bookkeeper for
26 years.
“You have to keep busy and your mind active, rather
than sit at home doing crossword puzzles,” said
Carlen.
His mind still sharp for details and numbers, he
handles about $200,000 in bills a week for Carnegie
owner Sandy Levine.
He attributes his longevity to laying off the corned
beef and cheesecake.
“You watch people eat all kinds of meats, bacon,
sodas and French fries and they don't think they're
doing anything wrong,” said Carlen. “Luckily, many
of the things I like are good for you.”
When his work day ends at 4 p.m., the mild-mannered
bookkeeper, takes the two-hour trip back home to his
wife of 65 years, Elaine.
“I’m lucky to have a good wife who is easy to get
along with,” he says.
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