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Ecuadorean woman, 116, is world's oldest
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-17 10:40
GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador - At 100 years old, she became bedridden and so weakened
from a stomach ailment that a priest administered last rites. But Maria Esther
de Capovilla recovered, and 16 years later she has become the oldest person on
Earth, according to Guinness World Records.
Maria Esther de
Capovilla reads the newspaper at her house in Guayaquil, Ecuador,
Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2005. Soon after celebrating her 100th birthday,
around the time the Berlin Wall fell, Maria Esther de Capovilla became
bedridden and so weakened from a stomach ailment that a priest
administered last rites. But she recovered, and now, 16 years later, she
has become the oldest living person on Earth according to Guinness World
Records. [AP] |
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Born on Sept. 14, 1889, the same year as Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler,
Capovilla was married the year the United States entered World War I ¡ª 1917 ¡ª
and widowed in 1949.
"We see the condition she is in, and what is admirable is not only that she
reached this age, but that she got here in this shape, in very good health,"
Capovilla's daughter, Irma, told an Associated Press reporter at the home where
her mother lives in this coastal city.
Seated on a sofa and waving a fan with a slender, steady hand in the tropical
heat, Capovilla seemed bemused by the presence of strangers. Irma, 79, leaned
close to her mother's ear, and speaking in a loud voice, told her she was famous
because she was the world's oldest person.
Capovilla shook her head and smiled.
Her calm disposition may be the secret to her longevity, her daughter said.
"She always had a very tranquil character," Irma said. "She does not get
upset by anything. She takes things very calmly and she has been that way her
whole life."
Capovilla, who comes from a well-to-do family, was confirmed as the oldest
person on Dec. 9, after her family sent details of her birth and marriage
certificates to the British-based publisher. She takes the oldest person title
from 115-year-old American Elizabeth Bolden, Guinness World Records said in a
statement e-mailed to AP.
Emiliano Mercado Del Toro, of Puerto Rico, retains the title as oldest man,
at 114.
The oldest person ever whose age was authenticated, according to Guinness,
was a woman named Jeanne Louise Calment, who lived to 122 years and 164 days.
She was born in France on Feb. 21, 1875, and died at a nursing home in Arles in
southern France on Aug. 4, 1997.
Three of Capovilla's five children ¡ª daughters Irma and Hilda, 81, and son
Anibal, 77, ¡ª are still alive, along with 10 of her 11 grandchildren, 20
great-grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren, the last of whom was born
in February 2003.
In her youth, Capovilla liked to embroider, paint, play piano and dance the
waltz at parties, the family said. She also visited a nearby plantation, where
she would drink fresh donkey and cow milk.
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