The dean of the world, the Brazilian nun Inah Canabarro Lucas, died Wednesday at the age of 116 and 326 days, announced the congregation of the theresian sisters in which she lived in the city of Porto Alegre. It is therefore the Englishman Ethel Caterham who becomes the dean of humanity at 115 years old.
The British Ethel Caterham, 115, is now the oldest person in the world, after the death of the Brazilian nun who hit the record until then, specialized research groups announced on Thursday. Born on August 21, 1909 in a village in Hampshire, in the south of England, Ethel Caterham lives in a retirement home in Surrey, after having survived her husband and two daughters.
She is now the dean of Humanity, according to the Research Group in Gerontology of the United States (GRG) and the Longeviquet database, after the death of the Brazilian nun Inah Canabarro Lucas on Wednesday at the age of 116.
His longevity secret? “I do what I want”
Ethel Caterham is the last living subject of King Edward VII, whose reign ended in 1910. She is also the oldest Briton of all time, according to the Oldest in Britain database. For her 115th anniversary, which she celebrated in August, she received a letter from King Charles III congratulating her to have reached this “remarkable stage”.
The secret of its longevity? “I never argue with anyone! I listen to and I do what I want,” she said on this occasion. The new dean of humanity currently has three grandchildren and five rear children. At the age of 18, Ethel Caterham went alone to India to work as a young girl with a family of soldiers, after a three -week boat trip.
Shortly after her return, she met her future husband, the soldier Norman Caterham, and they got married in 1933. The couple lived in Hong Kong and Gibraltar before returning to England. Her husband died in 1976, aged around sixty years, now almost half a century ago.
Ethel Caterham continued to drive up to almost a hundred years old and play bridge until advanced age. She even survived a COVVI-19 infection in 2020, according to the Telegraph.
The same year, she had told the BBC to have “taken everything with philosophy, the ups like the stockings” during her long life, delighted to have been able to “travel all over the world”. She also told the Salisbury Journal that it was essential to “seize each opportunity”, “to have a positive mental attitude and to consume everything in moderation”.
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