17 neighbours, 1,700 years of life: Alexandria just threw a birthday party for its centenarians

On a rainy night in Alexandria, Virginia, the mood inside the Del Pepper Community Resource Center was pure sunshine. Seventeen residents aged 100 and up were honored at the city's annual Centenarian Celebration — including Lt. Col. F. Jane Cotton, who rose to lieutenant colonel in the Air Force and writes that happiness comes from knowing she has done something for someone else, and Ruth Harris, born 1924, who answered what makes her happy with: 'Just to be alive and in my right mind.' Guests signed giant birthday cards with each centenarian's photo and biography, then presented them as keepsakes. A century, it turns out, tends to produce one.