I mentioned on another thread about my family having a Zoom meeting, and of the 14 first cousins that I used to have on my Mom's side, only three are left. My Mom had 4 sisters and one brother, and all lived into the mid to late 80's or beyond, with my Mom living by far the longest at just under 104. During this get together with my cousins I realized that for two of my Mom's late sisters, all of their offspring have passed. For the other three, only one out of the three each had is still alive. But all three of us that were born to my Mom are still alive, with my brother at 82, me at almost 77, and my sister at 74. I think all of my Mom's siblings shared some good genes with her, but I think my Mom had the best genes of the bunch and so far I'm the beneficiary along with my brother and sister. Of course on my Dad's side, where he died at 64, the genes don't seem as strong. So how much I am like my Mom and how much like my Dad is still unknown, but I tend to think that I am closer to my Mom since I've already outlived my Dad by 13 years.
All of this reminded me of when I was the Administrator of the Army's Institute of Surgical Research. We had an extensive research operation in many disciplines, not just in actual surgical research. One day one of our senior scientists and I were talking and he asked me if I would like to know the secret to a long life. I laughed and said "As if you know the secret!". He said "I do know it, are you interested?". I said "of course", and he said "the secret is to pick the right parents".
Interesting to think about.
All of this reminded me of when I was the Administrator of the Army's Institute of Surgical Research. We had an extensive research operation in many disciplines, not just in actual surgical research. One day one of our senior scientists and I were talking and he asked me if I would like to know the secret to a long life. I laughed and said "As if you know the secret!". He said "I do know it, are you interested?". I said "of course", and he said "the secret is to pick the right parents".
Interesting to think about.
