Are We Ready for the Centenarian Boom?

• Author: Lays, Julie

Agnes lived to be 101. She was my grandmother--a petite, Scotch-Irish formidable force of properness who visited the White House often while Ilo, her close cousin and wife of Henry Wallace, was second lady in the early 1940s.

Thirty years ago it was so unusual to reach 100 that our family celebrated Agnes' 99th grandly. But reaching 100 is not so unusual anymore. Our cover story, "Living to 100," tells us that by 2060 our country will be home to half a million centenarians.

Most of us have friends or relatives living longer than they ever imagined they would, some in good shape, others not. With fewer choices in the 1980s, Agnes spent her last years in a tiny room in a nursing home. Writer Suzanne Weiss asks: Is...