To understand my Nan’s incredible longevity, you have to know more about the life she’s lived
Photograph: Lewis Isaac/The GuardianPhotograph: Lewis Isaac/The Guardian“Just because no one has lived forever before, doesn’t mean Nan won’t be the first.” That’s a joke my cousin made about my then 94-year-old grandmother. A decade later it feels more like a prophecy.
Nan, or as she was known in her early years, Coral Giddy, was born at the tail end of the first world war. She left school as a teenager and joined the workforce in a garment factory to support her widowed mother. She married my Pop and raised a child on her own while her husband was fighting in Papua New Guinea and Bougainville during the second world war. Her three children gave her six grandchildren. She became a great-grandmother 23 years ago and has 10 of them at last count.
I suspect the truth about her endurance is something different though. Nan is determined to keep her eyes focused on the future. Even when the days are hard, she still looks forward.
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