Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/13061
LONGBEACHMAGAZINE.COM 51 I rene Hetzel had one birthday wish: to celebrate it at Yosemite National Park, where she and three girlfriends once camped to celebrate graduating from UCLA. Their UCLA isn't the institution we know today. At the time Hetzel completed her teaching credential, the student population numbered about 3,000. Only a few buildings stood, among them Royce Hall and the library. There was no place to host a graduation ceremony, so Hetzel and the class of 1931 had theirs at the Hollywood Bowl. Hetzel turned 100 in mid-May. The milestone was celebrated by a family camp out at Yosemite National Park, and again at a birthday party organized by her sons, Leo and Ralph, at her California Heights home. The latter was attended by about 150 guests — several generations of relatives and friends collected and loved over the course of a long, healthy life. "I don't have any secrets," Hetzel said. She's an anomaly in the family; both of her parents passed away in their 50s. "I think I'm just lucky. I have good health. I feel good." Hetzel joins the nation's growing number of older Americans — seniors 85 and older — that as a population are projected to swell to 20 million by 2050, according to the Federal Interagency Forum On Aging-Related Statistics. Among them are the centenarians, who account for about 84,000. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that demographic to increase seven-fold by 2040. Today's older seniors are healthier, better-educated, socially active and diverse. Including centenarians, the demographic straddles about three generations — the Interbellum generation born up to 1915, the Greatest who fought World War II, the Silents and now, the first wave of Boomers at the threshold of retirement age. DR. MYRVIN ELLESTAD