Head held high, hands firmly gripping her walker, Mary Arnott, 99, walks slowly with dignity through the women's changing room at the Etobicoke Olympium pool, past the teenage girls who have been blow-drying their hair for half an hour, into the mist of the showers, then out the door and first one into the heated pool. She jumps over to the shallow end, stopping to talk to friends--everyone knows Arnott here; she swims twice a week and treats it as a job--about their children, the viciousness  of bridge and their health. In fact, Arnott is an exception to the exception. Not only has she lived 20 years past the average lifespan for Canadians, she's healthy, her mind is sharp and she lives independently. Born in Brooklyn on May 28, 1909, Arnott was raised on Staten Island. She survived scarlet fever , helped bring up four siblings after her mother died in 1923 and worked as a secretary in New York City for 12 years, earning$35 a week and a$150 bonus at Christmas. Now she's happy living in a one-room apartment with a kitchen and a bathroom in her daughter's house. She wears a hearing aid, does the cryptic  crossword with a magnifying glass, and can't really explain why she has live so well so long. Until recently, she has still liked to drink red wine--she used to drink two glasses before supper each day. It's more likely genes, she admits. Her interest in other people and life in general may have had something to do with it. Asked if a star photographer can take her picture at the pool, Arnott seems cheerful. "I look good in a swimsuit," she says, nodding her head firmly. "I look better in a swimsuit than I do in pants. " If someone asks about swimming, Mary Arnott may   _  .
like swimsuit better like pants like to sit at the bank like to swim with girls