“This is what God has given me, so I have to take it — long life,” Brown, the oldest person on the planet, said.

Violet Brown spent much of her life cutting sugarcane in the fields around her home in western Jamaica. She attended church regularly, avoids pork and chicken and celebrated her 117^th birthday last month.

On Saturday, she is believed to have become the world’s oldest living person following the death of Emma Morano of Italy, born Nov. 29, 1899.

Brown told The Associated Press she is surprised but grateful to have lived this long.

“This is what God has given me, so I have to take it — long life,” Brown said in an interview in her home in the town of Duanvale.

Brown is considered to be the oldest person in the world with credible birth documentation, according to Robert Young, director of the supercentenarian research and database division at Gerontology Research Group, a network of volunteer researchers into the world’s oldest people. Its website says she was born on March 10, 1900.

Brown has not yet been declared the world’s oldest by Guinness World Records, considered to be the official arbiter of the oldest person title, but Guinness depends heavily on Young’s group. Young said he has met Brown and examined her birth certificate, which was issued by the British authorities who governed Jamaica at the time of her birth.

“She’s the oldest person that we have sufficient documentation for at this time,” Young said.

Jamaica’s prime minister congratulated Brown on Twitter.

Guinness said it was researching a number of candidates for the new world’s oldest person title.

“It can be a uniquely complex and sometimes lengthy process,” Guinness spokeswoman Elizabeth Montoya said. “There is no confirmation of a new title holder until our thorough processes are complete.”

Hard Work and Religion

Brown has two caregivers and spends most of the day resting in the home she shares with her 97-year-old son. She is able to sit by herself and walk short distances. And while she is hard of hearing, she offered swift, complete responses to questions about her life and family.

The secret to long life is hard work, she said.

“I was a cane farmer. I would do every work myself,” she said. “I worked, me and my husband, over that hill.”

She also credited her Christian faith for her long life.

“I’ve done nearly everything at the church,” she said. “I spent all my time in the church. I like to sing. I spent all my time in the church from a child to right up,” to today, she said.

Israeli Holocaust survivor Yisrael Kristal, who is 114 years old, is the oldest male in the world.

By: AP

The post At 117, Jamaican woman becomes world’s oldest person appeared first on World Israel News.

Emma Morano’s life spans three centuries, two World Wars and more than 90 Italian governments.

Emma Morano, the world’s oldest living person, celebrated her 117^th birthday on Tuesday.

She held a small party with a cake, and blew out the candles— not one for every year – but the three numerals 117.

Born in November 29, 1899, Morano, an Italian, is believed to be the last surviving person in the world born in the 1800s. She became the oldest living person in May.

She received a special greeting from Italy’s president Sergio Mattarella, which was read by an official, and a visit from two elderly nieces and her long-time physician to mark the milestone birthday.

The secret to her longevity may to be down to her love of eggs. “When I first knew her, she used to eat three eggs a day, two raw and one fried,” explained Morano’s doctor Carlo Bava. Today she eats two a day.

Her life spans across three centuries, two World Wars and more than 90 Italian governments.

By: AP and World Israel News Staff

The post World’s oldest person and last born in 1800s celebrates birthday appeared first on World Israel News.