My stepfather-in-law is still happy at work aged 90 – what’s his secret? | Zoe Williams

I wouldn't force a seven-decade-career on anyone, but when you see someone who loves what they do after that amount of time, it's worth learning from them

Maybe the most remarkable thing about my stepfather-in-law is that he managed to find love in a swimming pool, at the age of 85, which is how I became related to him in the first place. Just the awesome amount of charm it takes to woo over the smell of chlorine, at 6am, dressed in trunks, never mind the energy; it will be baffling to those who don't know him. That was five years ago. Now his 90th birthday is around the corner, and even though everyone has acclimatised to the energy, the charm and the swimming, it's still a bit chastening how hard he works. I want to call it dabbling, maybe a little bit of advice to a younger colleague; but it looks much more like actual work. He's an academic, fine, it's reasonable for them to have a long arc. And his subject is education which, as an area of policy it pleases the government to mess around in for dumb reasons, is in constant flux and needful of critique.

Conservatively, though, I'd say he works more hours than I do. He can find his way round a Zoom meeting faster than anyone besides gen Zs. I'm reasonably confident he can remember the dark nuances of Michael Gove and Dominic Cummings's blob" years better than either of them can. He's all over Labour's plans, when nobody else is sure they have any. He still travels for work when most of us have forgotten that was even a thing. I've never been 100% sure what emeritus" means, but if he is the model, it's something like Highlander".