Brazilian woman seeks title of world's oldest at nearly 120
Scientists from the Human Genome and Stem Cell Research Centre at the University of São Paulo are studying 119-year-old Dona Deolira Glicéria Pedro da Silva from Brazil. The researchers aim to understand the elderly woman better and uncover the secret of her longevity. She and her family are attempting to have her entered into the Guinness World Records.
Considered one of the oldest women in the world, Dona Deolira was born in 1905 in Porciúncula in the northwestern part of Rio. She will turn 120 on 10 March.
She is cared for by her two 60-year-old granddaughters. As the granddaughters say, their grandmother has always been active at home. She cared for the house, the yard, pigs, and chickens. She maintains a healthy lifestyle, eats everything, and likes bananas. She does not eat pineapple because she's allergic to it.
The oldest woman in the world. She will turn 120 in two months
The elderly woman had seven children, three of whom are still alive. She has 20 grandchildren, 40 great-grandchildren, and 37 great-great-grandchildren.
According to Reuters, two months before her 120th birthday, Deolira Glicéria Pedro da Silva, a great-grandmother from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is seeking recognition as the oldest living person in the world.
Currently, the oldest living person is another Brazilian woman, Inah Canabarro Lucas, a nun from the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, who is 116 years old. However, Deolira's family and doctors are confident that she will soon take over the nun's title.
"She is still not in the book, but she is the oldest in the world according to the documents we have on her, as I recently discovered," said Deolira's granddaughter, Doroteia Ferreira da Silva, who is half the age of her grandmother.
The documents show that Pedro da Silva was born on March 10, 1905, in Porciuncula, a small rural town in the state of Rio. She currently lives in a colourfully painted house in Itaperuna.
Doctors and scientists are highly interested in the grandmother, curious as to how she has managed to live over four decades longer than the average life expectancy in Brazil, currently 77 years.
Geriatric doctor Juair de Abreu Pereira, who regularly examines Pedro da Silva and supports her family in pursuing the Guinness World Record, noted that Mrs Deolira is in good overall health for her age and does not require any medication.
As her doctor stated, the major floods in the region nearly twenty years ago destroyed most of Deolira's original documents.
