Meet the 102-year-old nun who shatters stereotypes about advanced age

When you hear of someone who's lived beyond 100 years, you might picture a feeble person with bad hearing who has to use a walker or cane to get around.

But Sister Helen Bonia, who just celebrated her 102nd birthday, shatters every stereotype about a centenarian.

Bonia is easily mistaken for a 70-year-old, with her able mind and body and keen interest in current events.

"Live life to the fullest and use it or lose it. Use your brain. Keep it working, keep it active," she told CBC News.

A member of the Presentation Order in St. John's, Bonia still teaches, and proudly tells the story about how she recently helped a student get sensation back in her arm even though it was deemed "dead" by doctors.

She said the secret to staying so youthful is to keep challenging yourself, and to not worry too much.

"Be happy, don't take worry. People worry about nonsense, about nothing. I don't worry about anything. Where does worry get one?" she said.

Bonia was known for most of her convent life as Sister Raymond, the name given to her when she became a nun — a name she disliked because it was a "man's name."

She said the decision to become a nun came to her suddenly and unexpectedly when she was at a dance with her boyfriend at the time.

"We were staring into the mirror when all of a sudden it came to me — 'Give all of this up and go into the convent,'" she said.

"I never regretted it. I enjoyed life in the convent just as much as I did at home."

A century of change

Born in 1916 in the depths of the First World War, Bonia has lived through the revolutionary change of the 20th and 21st centuries.

She remembers the first time a car drove through her hometown of St. Mary's, the first time someone switched on an electric light.

If we're not careful, we're going into another world war.- Sister Helen Bonia

She also lived through the horrors of the 1930s and the Second World War, which she said remind her of the state of the world today.

"Sometimes I think that now, if we're not careful, we're going into another world war," she said. "That's what it seems like. If Trump keeps on."

With that being said, she's also witnessed the incredible technological and social change that's taken place over the last century.

Bonia said for her, the the most incredible change of all is how far women have come in the western world during her lifetime.

"Women are becoming much more important, and they're beginning to take positions they've never done before. It was always men. Look at Judy Foote," she said, referring to the former cabinet minister who was appointed lieutenant-governor last month. 

After a life of spirituality, Bonia doesn't mind talking about death, even though she's in better health than most seniors.

Her wish? "That I'll have a happy death and that my last words will be, 'Into your hand, oh Lord, I commend my spirit,'" she said.

"I don't want to be given morphine or something like that before I die. I want to know I'm dying, and be ready and happy to do so."