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20 Jul, 2010 03:21

Georgian woman, 130 years, claims to be the oldest living

They say age is nothing but a number, but what if that number is 130? That seems to be the case for a Georgian woman who claims she has broken the record as the oldest living person on Earth.

It is a claim backed up by her passport, but she appears to have outlived her birth certificate, which would help proven she is the world’s oldest living person by 16 years.

She spends most of her time in bed, but her ten grandchildren, eleven great-grandchildren, and three great-great-grandchildren keep her entertained year-round.

“Now I feel weak, but I do not want to stay in bed all the time,” Antisa told RT. “I worked a lot. I worked on my garden plot. I needed to raise my children after my husband died.”

They say, despite her age, she still has a sound mind and sharp eye and enjoys a game of backgammon every now and then.

“Mother worked all her life, even during the war,” said her son Mikhail. “She never had a very comfortable life.”

Mikhail is Antisa’s third and last living son. She claims she gave birth to him when she was 60. Her two older children died in the 1940s.

It seems there is something in the air in the mountains of Georgia. Living to over 90 is nothing out of the ordinary here, though making it to 130 is something special.

The secret could be a simple rural life, the genetics of the local population or, as some have suggested, a mix-up with documents. However, maybe it is a combination of all three that keeps people like Antisa going strong for so long.

Relatives say Antisa used to smoke cigarettes, does not eat meat, but does enjoy having a drink every now and then. She spent all of her life in the village she was born in. She did not have much of an official education and does not know how to read and write.

Her passport says she was born in 1880, but independently that documentation can not be verified without Antisa’s lost birth certificate. However, several other documents and testimonies from her neighbors and officials say Antisa is definitely over one century old.

“We have the so-called Form-1, which is a document created when an old Soviet passports was issued to Antisa Khvichava,” said Georgy Vashadze from the Civil Registration Agency. “This document also said that Antisa Khvichava was born in 1880.”

With paperwork or not, Antisa continues to lead by example, proving that age is a case of mind over matter – as long as you know how to make the most of every moment of life.

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