Australia’s oldest living person, Catherina van der Linden, will celebrate her 111th birthday tomorrow.
Mrs van der Linden lives in a residential care home in South Australia and credits her outstanding longevity to her active lifestyle, which still includes twice-weekly gym sessions and regular walks.
Her advice for a long life is, “Be happy with yourself and be content with what life gives you, sometimes it’s not very good and sometimes it’s better but you have to take the bad with the good as well and it’s possible to make living a joy.”
And of course, “keep moving, don’t sit still”.
Catherina’s oldest daughter, Mariella Hocking, says, “She really does like exercising and she likes walking.
“It’s not a surprise but I’m really pleased about it, I’m really chuffed that she still likes to do that.
“Mum had one aunt who also lived to 110 but all her brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, all lived only to their 60s and early 70s, so there’s a freaky gene there somewhere in the family I think.”
Born in the Netherlands in 1912, Mrs van der Linden migrated to Australia with her husband and young family in 1955 and went on to work in full-time paid employment.
She held a wide variety of jobs, including grape picker, nursing assistant, typist and clerical assistant, and had an interest in fashion and dressmaking inherited from her mother and father – a seamstress and a tailor.
Who’s the oldest person in your family? What’s their secret to living so long?
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