A 103-year-old doctor has shared her secrets to staying fit and healthy in old age after running a clinic for decades while raising six children.
Dr. Gladys McGarey, who published her memoir this year, continues to consult with patients over the telephone, give talks on podcasts and manages an Instagram account with over 47,000 followers.
In a recent interview, the centenarian emphasized the importance of having a purpose in life, saying: ‘You have to have something to live for.’
‘And if you are so afraid of what’s going on in the world, it’s very hard to get yourself juiced up enough to really want to do it,’ she added.
However, she didn’t always feel this way, and described feeling ‘broken’ when her husband of 46 years handed her divorce papers at the age of 69 to start a relationship with a colleague.
‘I thought, ‘Am I going to spend the rest of my life screaming like this?’ The very pain became a huge teacher,’ she shared with the Wall Street Journal.
Dr. Gladys McGarey, 103, has shared her secrets to staying fit and healthy, having run a clinic for decades while raising six children.
McGarey, who published her memoir last year, continues to consult patients over telephone, give talks on podcasts and manages an Instagram account with over 47 thousand followers
McGarey celebrated her 103rd birthday with her granddaughter Jessica McGeverly and Jessica’s husband, Connor McGeverly
McGarey, one of the founders of the American Holistic Medical Association in 1978, grew up in India where her parents were medical missionaries and came to the U.S. to attend medical school.
She later became a Presbyterian and operated a clinic in southern Ohio until she and her husband relocated to Phoenix, Arizona, where they ran a clinic for the next four decades.
But some years later her husband, Bill, who has since passed away, divorced her to marry one of their colleagues shortly before she turned 70.
She acknowledged the separation was ‘the hardest thing’ she has ever faced in an interview with the Guardian earlier this year.
She remembered being so angry when she received an invitation to Bill’s wedding.
‘I was screaming. I pulled over to the side of the road and thought to myself: ‘Are you going to keep on like this? I mean, this is really gross.”
But it was also the turning point in her life. She said: ‘This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
‘It’s not a matter of getting over stuff, it’s a matter of living through it. If you can live through the issues that you have been faced with, they become one of your teachers.
‘It wasn’t until I was 93 that I really accepted it. You get to that part where you can kind of hang on.’
Later, she purchased a plate that read ‘BE GLAD’ to serve as a constant reminder to cherish and celebrate the many things she ‘treasured’ in her marriage.
‘I don’t regret one minute that I spent as Bill’s wife,’ she said, but then added, ‘my life has taken on these amazing dimensions that are completely not associated with him.’
‘Prior to that, I really didn’t trust my own voice. I really didn’t think I had a voice,’ she said as reflected on the 46-year marriage during which she raised six children.
‘I know I had a voice. After the divorce, it was no longer Bill and Gladys, it was Gladys McGarey MD. I reclaimed what I had, not just as Bill’s partner,’ she added.
McGarey, one of the founders of the American Holistic Medical Association in 1978, grew up in India where her parents were medical missionaries and came to the U.S. to attend medical school
She later became a Presbyterian and operated a clinic in southern Ohio until she and her husband relocated to Phoenix, Arizona, where they ran a clinic for the next four decades
At the age of 86, McGarey concluded her career and journeyed to Afghanistan to instruct rural women on safer birthing practices
She authored four books and recently published the fifth. She has conducted a remarkable 200 interviews and podcasts since May
Her daughter Helene joined the medical practice, and together they opened a new clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, with the help from one of her patient’s husbands who cosigned the loan.
At the age of 86, McGarey concluded her career and journeyed to Afghanistan to instruct rural women on safer birthing practices.
But the active centenarian has not stopped working; she continues to provide consultations over phone calls, has written a memoir, and manages her social media platforms, where her followers are amazed by her wisdom.
‘There are the hills and valleys. In fact, I’m grateful to be a hundred years old. You know, it happens,’ she jokingly remarked during her TedX Talk on holistic medicine when she was 100.
During the speech, she expressed her belief in ‘a colleague within each patient who does the healing, as I do the other part of it, which is what I know and understand in the field of medicine.’
McGarey also maintains a healthy diet, gets nine hours of sleep, rides an adult tricycle and walks 3,800 steps each day.
The active centenarian has not stopped working; she continues to provide consultations over phone calls, write a memoir, and manage her social media platforms, where her followers are amazed by her wisdom
McGarey (pictured with family members) now lives in Scottdale behind her daughter’s house. McGarey maintains a healthy diet, gets nine hours of sleep, rides an adult tricycle and walks 3,800 steps each day
McGarey now lives in Scottdale behind her daughter’s house.
She has authored four books and recently published the fifth. She has also conducted a remarkable 200 interviews and podcasts since May.
Her son John, who lives with her and reviews the day’s schedule with her each morning, said: ‘She believes every person should have a reason to get up in the morning.’