driewerf writes:
Even very short living stars live easely a few
billions of years.
Stars with a mass of more than twice our sun live less than a billion years. The largest stars live less than 10 million (that's million with an "m") years.
Apothecus's example isn't affected by the actual lifetimes of stars. It was an explanation of how distance affects how long it takes light to reach us. The object emitting the light isn't a pertinent detail of the explanation.
--Percy