Oprah Winfrey, Madonna, Kate Winslet, Jane Fonda and Bill Moyers have all stayed at the famous Rancho la Puerta health resort and spa Centrally located in Baja California, the resort spans 4,000 acres and features exquisite mountainside cabins, pavilions, pools and gardens.
But the property’s brightest star is Deborah Szkeley, who at 102 years old co-founded the ranch with her husband in 1940 and now embodies everything the property aspires to achieve: health, longevity and peace of mind.
“The morning of my 100th birthday, I was lying in bed thinking, ‘Ha, I’m 100 years old. Does it make any difference?’ I couldn’t think of anything,” Szekely said. wealth, Recently, she flew from her home in San Diego to be interviewed in a New York City hotel suite and speak at two different health conferences. “I had a great life, and when it ended, it was over. But I enjoyed it,” she said. “I really, really don’t take on worries that I can’t do anything about. Otherwise I’d be an old woman! But if I can do something, I will do something.
The Brooklyn native had a dizzying list of accomplishments in her lifetime, including founding and operating Rancho la Puerta and the Golden Door, a luxury Japanese-style spa resort in San Diego (which she sold in 1998). At 60, she ran for Congress and served as president of the Americas Foundation; at 80, she realized a long-held dream and founded the Museum of New Americans and the Immigration Learning Center in San Diego.
All of this is an extension of her formative years, rooted in her mother’s values of healthy living, vegetarianism and sustainability. A registered nurse and vice president of the New York Vegetarian Society, she put her family on an all-fruit diet. In 1934, she made a bold decision that changed their lives forever.
“It was the Great Depression. My father was very depressed.
“My mom came to dinner one day and she said, ‘We’re leaving in 16 days.’ My brother and I and my dad looked at her and my dad said, ‘Where? “Tahiti.” ” We said, “Where is that?” “I don’t know,” she said. “But here’s the ticket. The ship, which took weeks to travel by sea to their new home.”
“We have lived a different life since then,” the centenarian said, adding that she remembered the years they spent in Tahiti, living a country life in a thatched cottage. way, and she still remembers the years they spent in Tahiti.
There, the family met another health-conscious transplant: Edmond Szkeley, aka “The Professor,” a Romanian immigrant and emerging health guru known for his teachings on philosophy and ancient religions Known for her books and lectures on health, exercise, and the value of fresh, organic vegetables. They all eventually returned to the United States, and Deborah’s family attended his summer “wellness camp.” It was then that Deborah decided to work for him, and she and Edmund fell in love. He was 34 and she was 17 when they got married.
“I did it to get out of trouble,” she explains. “He was the head of IHE, and he was going to England. I thought, ‘I’ll go to England, and if it works out, great. If it doesn’t, I’m free. I can go to France.’ It turned out It worked. So I stayed.
Building Rancho La Puerta
The new couple found their way to Baja in search of a place to create a health camp together, in part because Edmond sidestepped the fact that he didn’t have immigration documents that would allow him to stay in the United States. On a large piece of land at the foothills of Chuma Mountain, I wrote to my friends and invited them to live on this land.
“It’s $17.50 a week,” she said, “bring your own tent.” It’s successful, she adds, because “my husband is famous.”
They built their own permanent tent, which was soon replaced by a hut built from surplus army packing crates, then added a vegetable garden, exercise classes, a restaurant serving mainly raw vegetarian food (today the menu is pescatarian), and a printing press for printing Edmund’s books. Advertisements in Los Angeles attracted Hollywood audiences, as did The Golden Gate, which Deborah created in 1958 after traveling to Japan a dozen times in one year for inspiration.
The couple had two children, and today her daughter, Sarah Livia Brightwood, runs the resort, planting thousands of trees on the property.
“She’s the boss,” Deborah said. “She makes the decision…I don’t interfere.” (One of her grandchildren is a professional surfer and a board member; another is a recent high honors graduate of USC.)
Today, Rancho la Puerta, or “the ranch,” as she calls it, is a “small town” with 400 employees. It charges guests $5,100 per person or more for a week-long package and comes with 20 full-time fitness instructors, 11 gyms, a cooking school, an organic farm, three spas, including group hikes and workshops There are included projects, as well as tranquil nature trails for visitors to choose from. Only about 300 of its 10,000 acres are available to guests, part of a conscious effort to keep the footprint as small as possible.
“We won’t grow,” Deborah said. “Our design is smaller than the original.”
Deborah spends three days a week at the property and still holds weekly Q&A sessions with her guests in the always-packed house, often answering questions about how she is able to live such a long and healthy life . People wanted to know what water she drank – a question that made her laugh – and what her skin-care routine was, to which she responded: “Soap and water.” As she puts it wealth, “Those are not my profession. The fact that I don’t worry about it is more important than the water. I’ve really come to terms with what I can and can’t do.
But let’s be honest: What’s her secret?
Her healthy lifestyle—which includes never eating red meat and walking a mile a day even after two hip fractures (she now uses a wheeled walker)—is certainly a factor in her longevity. But Deborah knew that wasn’t all: her father lived to be 81, but her mother died of cancer in her 60s. Edmund died in his 70s (after their separation) despite refusing surgery for an umbilical hernia. “He died of a strangulated hernia as soon as he got to the hospital,” she said. She outlived her brother. Then came the greatest loss of her life: the death of her son (she declined to reveal the details).
But when it comes to outliving many people, Deborah said: “I don’t think so. You just accept it.”
She tends to have friends who are much younger, which helps. “I’ve always had younger friends – because of our conversations, the plays, the plays we went to, the activities we did, you know? They were in their 40s,” she said. “So interesting.”
Her advice to others seeking longevity is to stay physically and mentally active and read as much as she did, loving ninth-century Japanese mystery novels. “I like Buddhism,” she said. “I call myself a Jewish Zen Buddhist.”
But for Deborah, an active mind did not include contemplation.
“The thing is I don’t allow negative thoughts. We have everything under control. We can say, ‘I don’t want to go there.’ “You just won’t leave. I won’t,” she said. “I mean, the world is a scary place and scary things happen all the time… but I’m trying to help as many people as possible live healthier lives.”
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