Deborah Szekely, the Godmother of Health and Fitness, is 100 years old and Here is What She Thinks About It! | Chaz’s Journal

Below is the concept she delivered from Rancho La Puerta, the spa she commenced in Tecate, Mexico, with her husband when she was 17 years outdated.—Chaz Ebert

Certainly, These days is My 100th Birthday

by Deborah Szekely

I awoke early at Rancho La Puerta, listening for the sounds of anything happening on the garden outside the house my casita just as I did when Sarah and Alex were being small. “Shush,” I would whisper to them. “Let us get dressed!” Back then, we permitted autos on the assets, so I could hear quite a few doorways getting closed carefully. Team users had been arriving. Tables were being set up with major pots of warm chocolate. The tamales and conchas were completely ready.

At 7:00 a.m., I arrived out the entrance doorway even now in my bathrobe (a custom) and was greeted by a mariachi band in whole voice, trumpet echoing off the hills, massive bass guitar thumping, violins keening. The patio had been turned into a bower of bouquets. And just one dear close friend, José Lupe, has brought me 1 rose per yr of my daily life given that I was in my 30s. What a superb way to start off the day!

Dew was on the grass. The sunrise slanted towards Mt. Kuchumaa, painting it a muted, mystical indigo. Many hundred voices broke into singing Las Mañanitas, the Mexican custom at birthdays.

Despierta, mi bien, despierta. Wake up, my darling, wake up.

Amidst all the greetings and having fun with scorching chocolate and conchas, I understood: I am a statistic and a curiosity—only 1.73 of us (of me!) per 10,000 men and women reside this prolonged. 100! To me, it can be only a quantity on paper. I are not able to take it. In no way can I be 100!

My gratitude for my lengthy daily life is inexpressible. The range, on the other hand, will make no feeling to me. Right here I am at 100, but I still feel like the younger woman who arrived here with Edmond in 1940. I still make infinite choices in my daily life, big and modest. There is nonetheless so a great deal anticipated of me, and I hope a fantastic deal from myself. I am thoroughly unprepared for getting this “old.” For a single issue, so numerous persons come up to me and inquire what my secret is, what words and phrases of wisdom I can share. And I am speechless.