Gerald Ford is poised to break Ronald Reagan's record as the longest-living US president on Sunday, 121 days after his 93rd birthday. Ford, who served as president for three years following the resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974, played down the significance of the milestone in a statement released by his office.
"The length of one's days matters less than the love of one's family and friends," he said.
"I thank God for the gift of every sunrise and, even more, for all the years He has blessed me with Betty and the children, with our extended family and the friends of a lifetime."
Ford has been hospitalized numerous times this year, most recently in October, and in August underwent heart surgery.
Ford suffered a stroke in 2000, and was briefly admitted to hospital again in May 2003 after nearly collapsing during a round of golf in the intense heat of the California desert.
Ford became the 38th president in 1974, after Nixon resigned rather than face impeachment in Congress as a result of the Watergate scandal.
He had previously replaced vice president Spiro Agnew, who had resigned after an inquiry into his finances.
Ford lost the 1976 presidential election to Jimmy Carter.
Reagan was 93 years and 120 days when he died in June 2004. He had become the oldest US president in 2001, when he surpassed John Adams, the second American president who died in 1826 aged 91.
Poster Comment:
He's got one foot in the grave and the other ... toe testing the heat of Hades.
Another of the Kennedy cover-up murderers about to meet his maker !