An author who spent a year speaking to 120 of New Zealand’s centenarians has just released a book celebrating their lives.
Renee Hollis travelled to 70 rest homes and interviewed 23 war veterans for her book, Keepers of History.
She say she hopes readers will gain a new appreciation of the elderly.
“I think hopefully they can just appreciate what they've been through a little bit more and hopefully people will take the step and actually talk to older people and that's kind of the thinking behind it,” she says.
“If you see an older person sitting there then maybe you can come and sit along side them because so many older people are quite lonely and maybe that's the only conversation they've had that day or that week so they have so many amazing inspiring stories to share if we just take the time to listen to them,” Ms Hollis says.
Through her interviews, the author found that centenarians are a special breed of people.
“Most people who have lived through the depression and World War II are quite stoic and quite staunch.
"They just carry on and whatever’s dealt to them they just keep moving forward," she says.
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