Medieval alchemists tried to invent an elixir of immortality for people to have a long life and today, fitness enthusiasts try to upsell juice cleanses. However, the true heroes are those who have celebrated their 100 or more birthdays. Like this 108-year-old, Ada Daniel believes the secret to longevity is having dogs instead of kids.
Ada celebrated her 108th birthday back in June and revealed her secret to longevity. She resides in Codnor Park Care Home in Derbyshire. The centenarian old lady has been active all her life. Up until 97, Ada didn’t go into a care home until she was 103 and had enjoyed daily walks into town. If you’re wondering what’s her secret to living for so long, it’s certainly no special diet or a magic potion.
“I did ask her what her secret was once and she said it was to have dogs, not kids,” Ms. Goucher, an activity coordinator at the care home revealed.
The 108-year-old woman was particularly fond of greyhound dogs and had a lot of them. Ada lived on Street Lane and all of her greyhounds were also called Street Lane before moving into the care home. Ada definitely has a good sense of humour.
Ada was born in Ambergate village in 1915. She married her beloved husband Percy when she was 27. Her husband passed away at the age of 73. The couple didn’t have any kids as they preferred the company of their four-legged furry friends. Despite being 108 years old, Ada is not the oldest person in the UK. According to Oldest in Britain, she is currently 65th.
Ada loves her birthdays unlike some of us and gets excited for them months in advance. Her birthday falls on June 1st and the care home staff go all out for her birthday with balloons, gifts, confetti, and lots of cards from all over the country. It has now become a sort of tradition which began back in 2020 when the care home launched an appeal to the public. The care home she is in posted on their Facebook page, hoping to get 105 birthday cards for Ada on her 105th birthday. This was something that certainly cheered Ada up while in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2020, Ada had received 200 handwritten cards. This year, it was a whopping 300 according to the care home. Now they are hoping, she’ll manage to read them all by her next birthday before she gets even more of them.
King Charles and Queen Camilla also congratulated Ada on such a beautiful birthday, wishing her all the best. If you make it to 108, you certainly deserve the royal treatment.
While a lot of people agreed with the old lady, others were outraged. “Who will take care of you when you’re old if you don’t have any children?”, one commenter wrote. “I’d rather live a short life than live without my kids,” another said.
