AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch woman who swears by a daily helping of herring for a healthy life celebrated her 115th birthday on Wednesday as the oldest living person on record. Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper, a former needlework teacher, was born in 1890, the year Sioux Indians were massacred by the U.S. military at the Battle of Wounded Knee.
The passionate soccer fan celebrated her birthday in a nursing home in the northern Dutch town of Hoogeveen. "She eats a piece of herring every day because it's good for the health," said Johan Beijering, director of the Westerkim nursing home. "She is still mentally full of vitality." The daughter of a headmaster, Van Andel-Schipper was born in the town of Smilde in the northern Netherlands on June 29, 1890. | Where the screams of dying indians drowned out her cries |
Also known as Hennie, she married a tax inspector in the 1930s and was forced to sell her jewellery to buy food during the German occupation in World War Two.
| Which was not as brutal as Abu Graib, Gitmo, etc.. |
"A scan of our archive reveals that Hennie is also older than the Guinness World Records holder for the oldest man living, which makes her the oldest person in the world," said Guinness World Records book editor Craig Glenday. The world's oldest living man on record, Emiliano Mercado Del Toro, lives in occupied Puerto Rico. He was born on August 21, 1891 ,seven years before the illegal American War against Spain. |