Posted on 07/08/2010 11:15:19 AM PDT by MissesBush
SACHIRE, Georgia – Authorities in the former Soviet republic of Georgia claim a woman from a remote mountain village turned 130 on Thursday, making her the oldest person on Earth.
Antisa Khvichava from western Georgia was born on July 8, 1880, said Georgiy Meurnishvili, spokesman for the civil registry at the Justice Ministry.
The woman, who lives with her 40-year-old grandson in an idyllic vine-covered country house in the mountains, retired from her job as a tea and corn picker in 1965, when she was 85, records say.
"I've always been healthy, and I've worked all my life — at home and at the farm," said Khvichava, in a bright dress and headscarf, her withering lips rejuvenated by shiny red lipstick. Sitting in the chair and holding her cane, Khvichava spoke quietly through an interpreter since she never went to school to learn Georgian and speaks only the local language, Mingrelian.
Her age couldn't immediately be independently verified. Her birth certificate was lost — one of the great number to have disappeared in the past century amid revolutions and a civil war which followed the collapse of the Russian Empire.
But Meurnishvili showed two Soviet-era documents that he says attest to her age. Scores of officials, neighbors, friends, and descendants backed up her claim as the world's top senior.
The Gerontology Research Group currently recognizes 114-year-old Eugenie Blanchard of Saint Barthelemy, France, as the world's oldest person. The organization is yet to examine Khvichava's claim.
Khvichava has a son, 10 grandchildren, 12 great grandchildren and six great, great grandchidren.
Khvichava's 70-year-old son Mikhail apparently was born when his mother was 60. She said she also had two children from a previous marriage, but says they died of hunger during World War II.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Color me doubtful.
They claim that this woman gave birth to her last child when she was 60. That alone makes this claim pretty unlikely.
Amazing what a quart of vodka and two packs a day will do for you.
Um... sure.
Good thing she is not from the State of Georgia. 0bamao’s Death Panels would make sure she didn’t make it to 131.
But somehow she found enough to eat.
Either a liar or a monster or both.
Not this again?
I thought it was established long ago that this business of phenomenally long-lived Georgians was initially Stalin’s idea then continued after his death because the russkies just had to have biggest and best of everything—so of course the longest-lived people were included. This is supposed to have been a proven fraud.
Oh, THAT Georgia. If it were in OUR Georgia I have an easier time buying into the claim.
Smells like..........
"..as old as Methuselah."
Oh, come on. Helen Thomas doesn’t look a day over 194.
“She said she also had two children from a previous marriage, but says they died of hunger during World War II.”
And yet she didn’t starve to death????? Why was there enough food for her but not her children?
Is she sure she’s the mother?
Gotta be the Sturgeon caviar...
I’m thinking she could have had ADULT children die of hunger in WWII.
IF she is 130, she would have been 60 back then. Plenty old enough to have grown kids.
Yes very true. I let my emotions get in the way and didn’t think that one through. I read “children that died of hunger” and I thought little ones.
Helen only looks 195. The venom and bile takes a toll.....
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