Vincent Dransfield, 109, lives life like someone half his age. He drives his own car, does his own shopping, runs his own errands and does it all with a smile. The New Jersey-native is still independent, healthy and ready to dance.
“How do I feel? Let’s go out to a dance somewhere. How about that? That’s how I feel,” Dransfield told TODAY. “I’ve been very, very, very lucky in my lifetime. I feel perfect.”
Dransfield’s granddaughter, Erica Lista, doubled down on Dransfield’s incredibly lucky 109 years of life. From the perspective of a professional, she can’t help but be in impressed.
“He doesn’t get back aches,” Lista told TODAY.com. “He doesn’t get the daily aches and pains that I, at 48, get. He doesn’t get headaches, anything like that. It’s crazy. I’m an occupational therapist, so I know a lot about activities of daily living, and he requires help with none of it.”
Having never suffered from cancer or heart disease, Dransfield said his 109 years have all been healthy ones. The former fire department chief and longtime volunteer had some advice to give for any looking to copy his century of health success.
“I was drinking milk and eating well because I worked on a farm. And I often go back and think they gave me a good start in life and for my bones in my body,” Dransfield said, remembering his time working on a dairy farm at the age of 15 to support his family during the Great Depression.
Every day, Dransfield drinks Ovaltine after breakfast to keep his body strong — a decades-long practice that the former fire chief stands by.
Dransfield also said it is important to stay active. Rather than exercise, Dransfield spent his time working in an active environment.
“I was 21 years old when I joined the fire department and that’s the exercise I got every day — answered the fire alarms in Little Falls,” he said. “I was active and ran out when the alarm went off for 40 years. Then for the next 40 years, (I continued) when I felt like it.”
The New Jersey native also said that positivity can be a powerful force. Dransfield considers himself an optimist, and his daughter believes that has carried him well through the years.
“He always had such a positive upbeat attitude, even when my grandmother passed away. He lived for her, but he was determined to keep on living,” Lista said.
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