Dan DeLong / P-I

Seth Cook was born with a disorder that has left him 11 years old going on 80, but that hasn't stopped him from living a boy's life in Darrington, a small mountain town in Snohomish County.

Seth has progeria, a rare disease that accelerates aging. Only seven children have the disease in the United States. In the century since it was discovered, just a handful of children with the disorder have lived to reach age 21. Most are claimed by strokes or heart attacks in their early teens.

Living with progeria reveals its own insights about growing old. To find out what we could learn from a child who is aging faster than the rest of us, reporter Carol Smith and photographer Dan DeLong spent 11 months following Seth and his family.