FEMME POINT

LA FEMME is coming to the end of its print run and from next week you can find us online under the My Herald Live section of The Herald’s website at www.heraldlive.co.za

To mark the end of an era, listen to the advice of French woman Jeanne Louise Calment, who died in 1997 at the really ripe old age of 122 years, the longest confirmed human lifespan on record.

When the Eiffel Tower was built, she was 14 years old. It was at this time that she met Vincent van Gogh.

“He was dirty, badly dressed and disagreeable,” she recalled in an interview in 1988.

When she was 85, she took up fencing, and was still riding her bicycle when she reached 100. When Calment was 114, she starred in a film about her life; at 115 she had an operation on her hip.

Until the end of her days, Calment retained sharp mental faculties and when asked on her 120th birthday what kind of future she expected to have, she replied: “A very short one’’.

The following may be apocryphal, but we like to think Calment said them nonetheless:

ý “Being young is a state of mind, it doesn’t depend on one’s body. I’m actually still a young girl, it’s just I haven’t looked so good for the past 70 years.” ý “All babies are beautiful.” ý “I’ve been forgotten by our good Lord.” ý “I’m in love with wine.” ý “Always keep your smile. That’s how I explain my long life.”

ý “If you can’t change something, don’t worry about it.”

ý “I have a huge desire to live and a big appetite, especially for sweets.”

ý “I never wear mascara; I laugh until I cry too often.”

ý “I see badly, I hear badly, and I feel bad, but everything’s fine.” ý “I think I will die of laughter.” ý “’I have legs of iron, but to tell you the truth, they’re starting to rust and buckle a bit.”

ý “I took pleasure when I could. I acted clearly and morally and without regret. I’m very lucky.”