A steady pace 102-year-old matter-of-fact about outlasting impl

WEST PEORIA, Ill. -- When his heart outlasted the batteries in his pacemaker, George Mazzorana did what most would do in a similar circumstance -- he visited his cardiologist to get a power boost.

At 102 years old, Mazzorana isn't your typical pacemaker patient.

"You might as well put down 103," Mazzorana said recently as he scratched his upper chest where the pacemaker is implanted. "Because that's what I'll be in August."

Cardiologist Dr. Joseph Sarmiento said Mazzorana is the oldest patient he has ever given a pacemaker, which electronically regulates the beat of the heart. That was seven years ago, and the latest procedure merely added to the legend.

Mazzorana lives in a tidy room that overlooks a courtyard at St. Joseph's Home. The walls hold snapshots, some of them featuring young, smiling people with their arms around Mazzorana. One shows him in a T-shirt that reads, "It Took Me 100 Years to Look This Good," taken at his centennial birthday. Another shows a sign around his neck on which someone wrote, "George, The King of Ripps is 90."

Mazzorana was a frequent visitor to Ripps Tavern in Ladd, where he said he served as its unofficial handyman before moving to St. Joseph's from Spring Bay seven years ago. Mazzorana was married in 1936 to Theresa Mazzorana, who died in 1966. They had no children.

His legs have become too weak to walk and his eyesight is failing, causing frustration for a man who once loved to dance, read and draw. But Mazzorana's grip is firm, his voice is strong and his head cocks toward the door at the sound of passing footsteps in the hallway. He can hear the passers-by, he just can't see who they are.

'I sleep real good'

Freshly shaved and dressed neatly in a golf shirt and slacks, it is in no way patronizing to suggest he looks 25 years younger than his chronological age. He sleeps beneath a photograph of Pope John Paul II.

"I sleep real good," Mazzorana said. "And I come from a real good family. That's all I can say."

Recently, a routine check showed Mazzorana's pulse rate had slowed noticeably.

"A nurse called the doctor about it and apparently his old pacemaker was kaput," said Sister Mary Paul, an administrator at St. Joseph's Home, who is also Mazzorana's niece and only living relative. "When I explained the situation to him, I asked him if he wanted a new pacemaker."

Mazzorana thought about it for a moment.

"And he said, 'Yes, I want one,'" she said.

The decision wasn't made in a medical panic, Sister Mary Paul said, nor did it appear he pondered whether it was time to waive medical attention and simply let his long life run its final course.

"He was very matter-of-fact about it," she said.

That's a sentiment Mazzorana emphasizes.

"What the hell, I said put it in," Mazzorana said. "What do I care, as long as it doesn't cost me anything."

Mazzorana traveled to OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria, were he was anesthetized and his pacemaker was replaced in a short procedure. He was back home that afternoon.

"I didn't feel nothing," he said. "But now it itches."