A retirement home in Quebec is celebrating nine 100th birthdays this year, which will bring the total number of centenarians under its roof to 20.

To celebrate, The Waldorf assisted living facility in Côte-Saint-Luc, a Montreal suburb, hosted a group birthday party on Sunday.

“It just comes on gradually,” Irene Klein, who turns 100 this year, told CTV Montreal about entering the centenarian club. “You don’t feel it -- thank God!”

At 103, fellow resident Doris Schwartz says that she doesn’t think she looks a day over 80.

“Well, I look younger than my age,” Schwartz boasted. “I know that.”

And even though Mike Levine is about to turn 101, he says that age is simply a number.

“It began to sort of creep up on me that I was getting to be an old man,” Levine said with a laugh. “But I didn't feel old.”

Sunday’s party, which included friends and family, was the biggest gathering of centenarians The Waldorf has ever seen.

Michael Goldwax, the home’s director general, says they’re already preparing for more parties like this. The Waldorf’s oldest resident is currently 105.

“We're going to have more and more centenarians,” Goldwax said. “People are living longer due to medication, technology, innovations. People are living longer, eating healthier, living and being active.”

According to the 2016 census, there were 1,850 centenarians in Quebec, representing just 0.02 per cent of the province’s population. To have 20 people 100-years-old or over under one roof is something Francine Charbonneau, Quebec’s Minister for Seniors, has never seen.

“Until 2031, this is our reality,” Charbonneau said from the party. “We're going to have more and more people going over 100 and being still very available to us. Like, you're not in a hospital right now; you're in an elderly residence. We have to start thinking that they can live independently.”

The seniors at The Waldorf recognize that they are living longer than their parents or grandparents ever did. They offered no secrets to longevity, however, saying that living a long life simply comes down to common sense and having the right attitude.

“I never say, ‘How old are you?’” 101-year-old resident Donald Brown said. “You know what I say? ‘How young are you?’”

With a report from CTV Montreal’s Kelly Greig