In addition to watching the world spin into uncertainty, Van Dyke shared that one of the most difficult parts of reaching his age is that he outlived nearly everyone he’s loved – including his first wife, Margie Willett, the mother of his four children, who passed in 2008 after their 1984 divorce, and his longtime partner Michelle Triola, whom he was with from 1976 until her death in 2009.
Still, Van Dyke clarified the “occasional bouts of sadness and anger” are “not the essence” of him.
Wife keeps him youthful
He credits his wife Arlene, 54, as the person who keeps him vibrant and grounded.
“Without question, our ongoing romance is the most important reason I have not withered away into a hermetic grouch,” he wrote, according to the Independent.
Their relationship, spanning over a decade despite a significant age difference, has become one of the most stabilizing forces in his later years.
“Arlene is half my age, and she makes me feel somewhere between two thirds and three quarters my age, which is still saying a lot,” the Diagnosis: Murder star shared.
‘Giant playground’
Despite age, loss, and frustration with the world, the multiple award-winning legend holds onto the joy that made him a beloved figure for nearly a century.
“No one is genetically miserable. No matter our current circumstances, we all have the capacity for a joyful life,” he wrote, per Men’s Journal. “I’ve made it to 99 in no small part because I have stubbornly refused to give into the bad stuff in life: failures and defeats, personal losses, loneliness and bitterness, the physical and emotional pains of ageing.
