In her book “What Makes a Good Life,” American Gladys McGarey shares her life experiences and describes six requirements for health and happiness. We spoke to the 102-year-old.
Gladys McGarey was born in the same year that the Peace Treaty of Versailles came into effect, around two years after the end of the First World War. There were few cars on the streets, seatbelts weren’t even an idea, and for the first time women in the United States were allowed to vote. Televisions were unthinkable in Germany for a while and inventions such as the Internet, smartphones and Thermomix exceeded the imagination of even science fiction authors. The world was a different place when Gladys McGarey was born on November 30, 1920, 102 years is a long time.
Gladys McGarey: Embracing life unconditionally
However, in order to be able to receive the gifts of life, whether time, miracles or teachings, we do not depend on luck alone – at least that is the impression Gladys McGarey conveys. After her childhood in India, where her parents were deployed in a medical aid organization, when the family returned to the USA in the 1930s, she not only experienced her first separation – that of her perceived homeland – but also the suffering of her immediately afterwards Great Depression in the American South. Gladys, who followed her parents’ example and also became a doctor, was diagnosed with cancer twice in her life. She survived the disease twice. At the age of almost 70, Gladys finally survived what she describes as the most painful experience in her biography to date: the betrayal of her husband, who filed for divorce after 46 years of marriage in order to be free to have a relationship with a colleague.
Gladys McGarey will celebrate her 103rd birthday in November 2023. In her book “What Makes a Good Life,” the American shares her six secrets for health and happiness.
© Bill McGarey / PR
Even this very, very brief glance shows that Gladys McGarey has obviously suffered some deep injuries in her 102 years in this world. As she says, she wouldn’t miss out on a single moment of her life story. Every single moment was dear and necessary to her – because it led to the next one and the next one and ultimately every single experience brought her to where she is today. Where she is exactly right. According to the 102-year-old, one of the most important prerequisites for living a long, healthy, happy life is to say yes to life. And unconditionally.
The 102-year-old’s most valuable insight
What has helped the Sagittarius-born person to always accept her life in all its facets is perhaps what she calls her most valuable insight or memory: “Love itself is the greatest healing power,” she says. “I felt this as a child and used it in my work as a doctor, but it was only in retrospect that I understood that healing is about love.” According to her, in connection with other people we could recover from almost any pain or wound and ultimately emerge from a phase of illness even stronger and healthier than before. “Healing is about caring and caring. About being attentive to what people are going through and living through and becoming part of this wonderful human community.”
Whether it’s an injury that other people have inflicted on us or we have caused to ourselves. Whether it’s one that occurred without our doing or one that we paved the way for with a conscious decision. According to Gladys McGarey’s 102 years of life experience, the best way we can recover and help each other is to love and let love. We could at least try to trust such an observation, which is based on 102 years of life experience.
In her book “What Makes a Good Life,” Gladys McGarey shares the most important insights from her long, eventful life. In it she tells stories that she has experienced herself and describes experiences that she had with her patients as a doctor.