Wash your face with witch hazel, moisturize with Vaseline, eat only colorful vegetables, laugh, don't smoke, dance.
There's a list of tonics recommended for a long life, and they seem to change depending on who you ask.
But at a joint celebration of three centenarian women at the same nursing home in Brooklyn this week there was one common thread: the love of family and friends.
On Monday afternoon, Marie Baker, 102, Sophia Smith, 101, and Lucille Price, 100, were thrown a shared 'century party' at their home at the The Allure Group’s Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in Crown Heights.
Surrounded by family and friends, the women's lives were celebrated with a cheers to many more to come.
100-year-old Lucille Price moved to New York from Guyana in the 1960s and was a house wife and hairdresser. She has 20 grandchildren and 35 great grandchildren.
Her daughter Donna Price said Lucille was simply extraordinary.
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"I couldn't picture myself at 67, much less her at 100. And no one in her family has lived this long, she is the first.
"She’s special. In every family there’s one."
While the elixir of youth was hard to pin down, the centenarian divulged a few secrets.
"Exercise," she said. "I exercised a lot. And I'm feeling great."
While Price was now wheelchair-bound due to persistent arthritis, her daughter said she still loves to dance in her chair, and she's still vain.
"Whenever there’s a function she asks 'Am I going to get something new?' she laughed.
"It’s nice, you know. I don’t know what I’m going to do when she goes, because most of my time is here. It’s not going to be easy."
Also from Guyana was 101-year-old Sophia Smith. A Seventh-day Adventist, Smith said she was still "feeling great" and still eating, drinking and laughing "by the grace of God".
Her family said their mother was still sharp, and was often called on to remember things they couldn't.
For 102-year-old Marie Baker, who was resplendent in sand-colored pants suit, sequinned top and red lipstick, the secret to longevity was out of her hands.
"I don't know," she admitted. "I've had some sick days, but God wasn't ready."
Baker grew up in Virginia but spent most of her life in New York, where she worked for a Brooklyn cardiologist for 40 years.
Her daughter Dr. Geraldine (Gerry) Baker said her mom never drank or smoked, never used the word 'diet' and had a beautiful attitude.
"She has the gift of resilience," she said.
"It’s an attitude, and having a good life and having high expectations and standards. Our parents were self sustaining and they made us self sustaining."
