Singapore’s centenarians still enjoying life past 100th birthday

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SINGAPORE - Madam Loh Cheong Tai enjoys baking biscuits. She lovingly decorates each one with 100s & 1000s brand sprinkles and likes nothing more than to see others eat them.

 

“It makes me happy when I see people enjoying what I cook,” she says in Cantonese.

 

Madam Loh is 105 years old, has lost all her teeth and no longer uses dentures, as they keep falling off. But that has not stopped her from savouring her food.

 

She sometimes asks her daughter, Ms Jennifer Wong, 71, to buy chee cheong fun or chwee kueh from the nearby market in Bedok for the next day’s breakfast. Her memory remains sharp and if her daughter forgets to buy it, she will remind her the next morning.

 

Madam Loh is among 1,500 people in Singapore who have passed their 100th birthday. Two in three of these are women, as they generally live longer. Many continue to enjoy life into their 100s.

 

In 2021, the life expectancy at birth here was 81.1 years for men and 85.9 years for women, according to the Department of Statistics. Its data shows that there are currently also about 21,500 nonagenarians, or people in their 90s, in Singapore. Of these, around 14,900 are women and roughly 6,500 are men.

 

With Healthier SG, which aims to get people to live healthier for longer, there may be even more in the future who live full, rich 100-year-long lives.

 

The United Nations estimates that there are 573,000 centenarians globally. The United States has the most, at almost 97,000, and Japan has the highest proportion at 0.6 per cent of its population.

 

Professor Philip Choo, group chief executive officer of the National Healthcare Group and a geriatric doctor by training, said: “A simple way of life, with lots of daily activities, healthy diet with mainly plant-based protein, and absence of excessive stress and smoking are important factors to a longer healthy life.”

 

He added that studies have shown that genes play an important role in allowing people to lead long and healthy lives. So does happiness “as in good family and social relationships... and being content with life”.

 

When asked for her secret to staying healthy for so long, Madam Loh said: “I just eat and sleep.”

 

But her daughter says that although she does not exercise, she has led a very active life, and to some extent, still does.

 

She came to Singapore from China at a very young age, married a tailor and had three children, two of whom she has outlived.

 

She picked up tailoring and helped out in her husband’s business, sewing the men’s trousers to go with the coats he made. Her husband died when her children were still young.

 

She continued as a seamstress for some time. Ms Wong, her youngest child, recalls helping to deliver the finished items when she was just 12 years old.

 

But times were bad, and sewing alone was not enough to keep the family housed and fed. So Madam Loh took up the job of live-in helper in a home near hers. She would visit her own home two or three times a week, doing the grocery shopping for her children, who had to learn to take care of themselves.

 

That went on for a decade until her children had grown up and married. She then lived with her second son, but moved in with her daughter when Ms Wong’s husband died some years later.

 

Ms Wong said it was only then that she understood why her sister-in-law used to complain about Madam Loh. She was very finicky and wanted things her own way.

 

Even now, she can be particular about the soup they have for dinner. So she rolls herself into the kitchen on her wheelchair to select the Chinese herbs she wants for soup on any given night.

 

Soup is a staple for most Cantonese, and Madam Loh is no exception. And it needs to be prepared with care. “You need to boil the soup on low heat for at least two hours for the goodness of the herbs to get into the soup and for it to taste good,” she said.

 

Some days, she adds ingredients that she believes are good for the brain, other days, she selects those that energise. She almost always includes wolfberries, which she says are good for eyesight, and red dates to sweeten the soup.

 

Whether it is the wolfberries at work or not, Madam Loh’s eyesight remains good. She can still do some simple sewing to change the elastic band on her trousers, for example. But she now needs someone else to thread the needle for her.

 

Madam Loh’s day usually starts at around 11am. She spends about 30 minutes in prayer – she converted from Taoism to Christianity about 10 years ago. She is now part of the Brethren Church.

 

Then she carefully moisturises her face, arms and legs, before having breakfast at around noon – usually a slice of bread with cocoa, tea or coffee.

 

Then, it’s time for a nap before lunch at 2pm. She enjoys food with strong tastes, both salty and sweet. Rice is a must for lunch, as soup is a staple for dinner.

 

In the afternoons, she often sits on the balcony looking out at the trees. She has a budgie in a cage there keeping her company. Once a month, she gets visits from church members, which gets her animated.

 

She enjoys Saturdays the most, as that is when her six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren visit.

 

What she is most looking forward to now is the marriage of her great-granddaughter in June. Her daughter has promised her new clothes.

 

“I don’t want them too bright. They must be suitable for old women,” she said. Those will be the clothes she wants to wear when she dies, she added.

 

But until that day comes, she will continue making biscuits for anyone who wants them – she insists her daughter share them with colleagues in her office.

 

Ms Wong is a division leader in seniors engagement at the Agency for Integrated Care. She is a grandmother herself, but when she goes out with friends, and returns at midnight, she invariably finds her mother has stayed up, waiting up for her.

 

And then Madam Loh will ask: “You went to work this morning, and you only come home now? Why so late?”

 

100 was just a number for centenarians who lived it up to the end

 

Madam Ho So Chun

 

Madam Ho So Chun was 106 years old when she died in 2017. At age 100, she had congestive heart failure, hypertension, high cholesterol levels and type 2 diabetes. Her cervical cancer was in remission.

 

Enough medical problems to depress many, but not her.

 

Her daughter, Ms Amy Loh, a retired pharmacist, said her mother had an “extremely positive in outlook and never complained”.

 

Even when she was into her second century, Madam Ho would still dress well, with matching top and long pants, shoes and handbag whenever she went out.

 

And she did enjoy going out – doing her weekly grocery shopping at supermarkets, or just going around shopping malls, people-watching.

 

Her children made an effort to take her out. She enjoyed flower shows, particularly ones involving orchids, so they would go to the Botanic Garden’s orchid garden or stroll through Gardens by the Bay.

 

Ms Loh said: “She absolutely loved dining out – Western-style set lunches, dim sum lunches, Chinese restaurant dinners, seafood restaurants, Indian curry meals, and especially buffets. She really enjoyed these. And because we told the staff her age, she got star treatment.”

 

She used to be tickled pink when restaurant staff complimented her on her looks. She was delighted when a restaurant manager refused to charge for her meal in admiration for her sheer enjoyment of the food.

 

“That pleased her to no end,” said Ms Loh.

 

She would dress well even when at home. A hairdresser friend would visit her regularly to do her hair, and she also had her fingernails manicured.

 

She would spend her days watching television, especially soap operas, or playing mahjong with old friends – who were all younger than her. That she often won added to the pleasure.

 

She was lucid to the end and could discuss the latest news with her children.

 

Said Ms Loh: “She really enjoyed life and was always game for any suggestions from the family on places to go to for outings or food. We enjoyed seeing her enjoy herself!”

 

Madam Tan Chwee Cheng

 

The last long holiday Madam Tan Chwee Cheng took was to Brisbane to visit her granddaughter. It was a long trip, but she walked out of the plane on her own. She was then 100 years old.

 

That was nine years ago. Madam Tan died in January, aged 109. Longevity seems to be in her genes, as her mother died at 99, and a brother at 102 years old.

 

One of her granddaughters, Ms Melita Teo, the chief customer and digital officer at insurance firm AIA, said her grandmother was still healthy and well when she passed 100. Dementia hit her only a few years later.

 

She enjoyed her morning and evening walks of about 30 minutes each.

 

“She was so peaceful and docile that a butterfly landed on her forehead while she was on one of these walks,” recalled Ms Teo, who said her grandmother was always joyful, gentle and nurturing, with never a harsh word for anyone.

 

Until the age of 98, she still made her weekly special Teochew cuttlefish minced pork porridge, and the yearly rice dumplings and pineapple tarts. But by the time she was 100, she had stopped cooking. But she still travelled, and her daughter took her on several driving holidays to Malacca and Kuala Lumpur.

 

She had a sweet tooth – figuratively speaking – as she had lost all her teeth by then. Her gums were all smoothed out, so dentures would not stay on. Her food had to be minced, but she could still tuck into her favourites, which were ice cream and mooncakes. She also loved durians.

 

Her passing was quick, and with her family at her side – the way she wanted it to be.

 

Said Ms Teo: “She led a simple and blessed life. Her end was swift.”

 

 

Source: The Straits Times © Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Reproduced with permission.

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