Yahoo – AFP,
2 May 2014
Lima (AFP) - A 116-year-old Peruvian living in extreme poverty in the heart of the Andes is in the running to become the oldest person in the world.
Lima (AFP) - A 116-year-old Peruvian living in extreme poverty in the heart of the Andes is in the running to become the oldest person in the world.
Born
December 20, 1897, Filomena Taipe Mendoza is only three months younger than
Japanese Misao Okawa, who is the world's oldest person according to Guinness
World Records and the US-based Gerontology Research Group.
Handout
picture by the Peruvian Ministry of
Development and Social Inclusion shows
the
ID card of 116-year-old Filomena Taipe
Mendoza, born on December 20, 1897
(AFP
Photo)
|
"I am
not of the past century, young man, but the other one... I am very old,"
she told an official accompanying her to cash the first check of a retirement
program for seniors living in extreme poverty.
"My
secret to longevity is a natural diet: I always ate potatoes, goat meat, sheep
milk, goat cheese and beans," said the wizened Taipe Mendoza, who has
never left her dirt-poor village in Huancavelica.
"Everything
I cook comes from my garden. I never had canned soft drinks.
"I had
a very hard life, I was very a young widow with nine dependent children and I
worked hard to raise them. Only three of them are alive," the ministry
quoted her as saying.
"I
wish I still had teeth," she added of her one wish.
The pension
means Taipe Mendoza will now get free medical care and receive every month
about 250 Soles ($90).
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