On Tuesday, September 17, there was a festive atmosphere on the second floor of the Ty Glazig residence in Quimper during the celebration of Marie Jaouen’s 110th birthday. Accompanied by her family, residents, nursing home staff, Matthieu Stervinou, deputy for solidarity, and Isabelle Assih, mayor of Quimper, Marie Jaouen shared the personalized cake.
The supercentenarian was born in Quimper in 1914. Her parents, farmers who settled in Cuzon, had five children to whom they instilled the values of the land. Schooled from the ages of 9 to 13, she obtained her school certificate and married, in 1937, Michel Jaouen with whom she had three children, Jeanne-Marie, René and Marie-Noëlle, present this Tuesday to honor their mother with some of her 11 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
A farmer, she turned to mixed farming and livestock breeding with her husband, selling the fruits of their labour twice a week at the Quimper market halls. Widowed since 1968, she lived in her house in Kerfeunteun until she was 107, moving into the Ty Glazig residence on 25 May 2021.
“We have more and more centenarians in our establishments, this is explained by the progress of medicine and by their strength of character and their ability to stay in touch with others. Marie has all her reasoning, she talks and is sometimes mischievous”, confides Catherine Corre, director of the five Ehpad managed by the Cornouaille Hospital Center.
The oldest woman in Finistère, Marie Jaouen, is one year younger than the oldest Breton woman, while a 116-year-old Japanese woman currently sits at the top of the age pyramid.
