Mexican native Leandra Becerra Lumbreras celebrated her birthday last weekend and claims to be have turned 127 years old. According to EFE, she was born in northeast Mexico, Becerra Lumbreras says she was born on Aug. 31, 1887. Should these claims be accurate, then she is not only the oldest woman in the world but also the oldest woman to ever live.
The Guinness World Records cite the oldest living person in the world to be Jeanne Louise Calment, who died in 1997 as a 122-year-old. Currently, the organization recognizes the oldest living person to be 116-year-old Misao Okawa of Japan. If Becerra Lumbreras can be verified -- she cannot find her original birth certificate so her claims cannot be proven -- then she could take the title as the oldest living person.
Becerra Lumbreras, who believes she lost her birth certificate 40 years ago when she moved to Guadalajara, is still able to talk and has mobility even though she is deaf and has cataracts. Having outlived much of her family, she recently lost her grandson, who was 90 years old, last year.
"She was always a fighter,” said her great-granddaughter, Miriam Alvear, 43, to EFE, adding that Becerra Lumbreras may have served soldiers fighting for President Porfirio Diaz in 1910. “She sewed her own clothes and up until two years ago she still wove. She has never ceased to be active; we think that’s the reason she could get to this age.”
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