asking for a friend

Harvard Study, Day 6 of “8 Days” Questionnaire, 2003

Q: What is the secret to aging well?

A: Happiness, caring. Watch what you’re eating. Try to get out and do a little walking or exercise. Have friends. It’s so good to have friends.

Harriet Vaughn, Study participant, age 80

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Robert Waldinger & Marc Schulz, “The Good Life”

Deborah spent the next months simply, working on a series of pen-and-ink drawings and cleaving the past in heavy hours with Dr. Fried. As the world began to gain form, dimension, and color, she started to find the sessions of choir practice and sewing class too fragile a scaffold on which to build hope. No matter how pleasant, sane, or cooperative