Participant Spotlight: Marion, 87, is a professor emeritus from Vancouver, B.C. She joined the CLSA in 2012.

Could you share with us a little about your journey with aging?

When I think about aging, I think of it in two ways. I want to talk about the state of being elderly (I’m 87, so I’m definitely in that category). So, the state of being old and the process of getting older.

As far as the state of being old is concerned, I think the most important thing to say, important because it’s not self-evident, is these latter years of my life are years of great contentment. I read years ago in The Economist about the “U-shaped Curve of Happiness.” They drew a graph to illustrate this and at 18, people were pretty happy, that was a high point. From 18, it went down and reached a low point somewhere between 45 and 50. Then, it went up to 80. At 80, it was slightly higher than at 18. This was across many countries both rich and poor. They didn’t go beyond 80, but there’s nothing in my experience that goes against that evidence. I think it’s important for me to say to family and friends as may be appropriate, that these latter years are times of very great contentment, happiness, if you like. What’s happiness? We can define it lots of ways.

How do you define happiness?

I’ve always been happy to be the age I was. I remember when I was 15, talking to a friend, and saying, “I’m happy to be 15.” Lots of teenagers want to be 18 or 20, you know. Then, people find it traumatic to be 30 or 40 or 50. I never did, I was always happy to be whatever age I was. I’ve always had goals all through my life, it’s been one thing or another that I’m working on. Aging, I haven’t thought about it a lot. I just keep going. Life is good and sometimes bad and you just keep going.

What is your personal approach to healthy aging?

I think it’s important to attend to your physical health, your mental health, your social health. I think exercise is important. I hate exercise, it’s very boring. But, I am conscientious. I walk. I can’t walk far but I do walk very regularly depending on the weather and how I feel. I do band exercises. I do balance exercises every day of my life. So, exercise is important. It’s important to eat a healthy diet, and I do. It’s important to have appropriate medical tests, and I do. It’s important to have appropriate vaccinations, for pneumonia, for shingles, for flu and for COVID.

What are the challenges of getting older? 

The other thing is about the state of being old, it’s a time of loss and limitations. I think this is very obvious.  It’s certainly true for me. For example, I’ve lost three and a half inches of height. I can’t reach the shelves in my kitchen cabinet. I can’t walk far. So that means I need to be careful doing my grocery shopping because I run out of steam. If I have an appointment, I have to think, “I hope I get parking close enough so I can walk.” Limitations of all kinds.

Your world can close in as you get older, because of the loss and limitations that I’m talking about. So, it’s very important that your world not close in mentally, that you’re still reaching out and learning. Friends are important, family is important, social connections are important. As I say, I play bridge quite seriously at clubs and in tournaments. Not anymore because of COVID. I play online now. But that means I know a lot of people.

What do you hope the CLSA will accomplish?

I just can’t even begin to imagine the questions they’ll be able to answer. They will have such a large volume of data. I’m sure the participants have been selected with care, as to age and ethnic background and so on. So, they’ll be able to answer all manner of questions.

Why did you participate in the CLSA COVID-19 Questionnaire Study?

I was a researcher myself when I was at UBC and would always participate in research if asked to do so.  But also, I think this is an important study.