ATLANTIS, FL — Making it to 105 is a big deal – but according to Dr. Theodore Gerson's family, what's even more impressive is everything he's accomplished since calling Palm Beach County home back in the 1950s.
WATCH BELOW: 'I don't have the drive to get up at this age, but I get up,' Dr. Theodore Gerson tells WPTV's Victor Jorges
Our cameras were rolling as this local hero received quite the surprise: his loved ones decorated his entire front yard to celebrate this incredible milestone birthday.
"Happy 105th Theodore!" read the colorful signs adorning his property.
Inside his home, WPTV reporter Victor Jorges asked Gerson the question everyone wants answered: What's his secret to making it 105 years?
"I wish I knew,” he said. “I'd never dreamed that I would live this long."
But all jokes aside, Gerson did share his daily philosophy – the mindset that gets him out of bed each morning after doing so for more than a century.
"I don't have the drive to get up at this age, but I get up, because I know there's daylight coming through the window, and I know it isn't healthy to lie in bed all day long," he said.
Gerson has built quite the legacy here in Palm Beach County. His family estimates that during his 41 years as a practicing physician, he helped deliver more than 7,000 babies.
"It wasn't a normal life," he said. "I almost never had a night's sleep uninterrupted. If I did, I woke up thinking there must be something wrong with the phone."
But ask Gerson about his biggest accomplishment, and he won't mention the countless deliveries or medical procedures. Instead, he focuses on something more personal – the relationships he built with thousands of families over the decades.
"What I'm proud of is the great number of people that I had as patients who felt that I had done a good job," he said. "It was something I never dreamt I'd ever feel, but it was a warm feeling. It was like having a giant family in one town."
