Max Gurney still has the charm. The same bright blue eyes. And the same sense of humor he says he learned from his late wife Kira.
I first met him in December after friends and strangers raised thousands to help the 104-year-old veteran stay in his home and expand his care.
Now, months later that support has given more energy to keep living. He's turning 105 on June 10th.
"For practical purposes, I will go back to my adolescence!," Max Gurney said through a grin.
And honestly, adolescence may not be that far off.
Because at nearly 105 years old Max is still packing his calendar with more travel, dinners, reunions, and adventures than most people decades younger.
And he’s doing it alongside friends like Tim McCully.
"Once people have met Max and he pulls them in, they become members of a very elite global society called the Friends of Max from which there is no escape," McCully says.
McCully has been one of those friends for more than twenty years, traveling alongside Max on many of the international adventures he’s been invited to as a World War II veteran.
“Max has broadened my world," McCully says.
And this year’s trip feels especially meaningful.
He’s headed to a two week long trip to celebrate his birthday at the Monaco Yacht Club, attend an event as one of the 12 knights of the Burgundy Wine Society of France and reunite with friends from around the world.
But it doesn’t end there, he’s also expected to have a private audience with Pope Leo himself, making it his third contact with the pope in his lifetime.
So what’s the secret to keeping up with a schedule like this at almost 105 years old?
“I cannot tell you the secret," Max says. "I think it’s a combination of God, mother, events, circumstances, destiny, whatever you call it...I've been very lucky.“
But his friends think they know the real answer; "The secret is that he always has something to look forward to," Mccully says. "He always is thinking of the next thing, this year its this trip, he’s already thinking about attending the Panem reunion in October."
That may be the real lesson Max leaves behind everywhere he goes.
Not just to grow older. But to stay curious.
To keep planning and to keep saying yes to what’s next.
