GEORGIA: Georgian woman could be world's oldest at 129

Record ID: 642988

  • Title: GEORGIA: Georgian woman could be world's oldest at 129
  • Date: 14th March 2010
  • Summary: SACHINO, WESTERN GEORGIA (MARCH 12, 2010) (REUTERS) MOUNTAINS RIVER AND VILLAGE ROAD BUS DRIVING ALONG VILLAGE STREET MEN WALKING INTO COURTYARD OF VILLAGE HOUSE AND GROUP OF PEOPLE STANDING OUTSIDE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHERS FROM INTERNATIONAL NEWS AGENCIES TAKING PICTURES OF ANTISA KHVICHAVA, A 129- YEAR-OLD WOMAN ACCORDING HER ID PAPERS, IN HER BED VARIOUS OF ANTISA KHVICHAVA HOLDING HER PASSPORT "CROSS" PUT INSTEAD OF PASSPORT HOLDER'S SIGNATURE (SOUNDBITE) (Georgian) ANTISA'S 70-YEAR-OLD SON, MIKHEIL KHVICHAVA, SAYING: "She could only put her signature when she was younger; they had no education in those times. Poor woman worked her whole life. She cultivated tea and gave it to (Soviet) collective farm almost for nothing and that kept us all alive." GEORGIAN NATIONAL FOOD "KHACHAPURI" (BREA AND CHEESE) ON BED TABLE (SOUNDBITE) (Georgian) ANTISA'S 70-YEAR-OLD SON, MIKHEIL KHVICHAVA, SAYING: "She usually eats matsoni (Georgian yogurt), cheese, porridge. Now we cook for her what she wants." VIEW OF COURTYARD FROM ANTISA'S BED MIKHEIL KHVICHAVA PASSING BY WINDOW ANTISA KHVICHAVA'S GRANDSON, VALERA, TAKING BUCKET OF WATER FROM WELL IN THEIR COURTYARD TABLE WITH FOOD BEING CARRIED INTO ROOM ANTISA KHVICHAVA GREETING VISITORS FROM LOCAL CIVIL REGISTRY OFFICE VISITING JOURNALISTS AND STAFF FROM LOCAL CIVIL REGISTRY OFFICE TOASTING OLD WOMAN AND WISHING HER GOOD HEALTH
  • Embargoed: 29th March 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Georgia
  • Country: Georgia
  • Topics: General,People
  • Reuters ID: LVA66H5W7AZSQ1PSHF9NE9MWYFV1
  • Story Text: Not many Georgians until recently knew Sachino, a small village in western Georgia, cupped by the Caucasus mountainous range. Today it has become a frequented place in quest of Antisa Khvichava who is 129 years-old according her Soviet era passport issued in 1979.
    Antisa looks fragile and spends most of her days in bed, but her eyes shine and sparkle as the visitors arrive to her stone shabby but neat hose, where she lives with her younger son Mikheil who is 70 years old. He insisted that he was born when his mother was 59.
    Antisa has a lot of visitors these days including journalists and officials from local municipal offices who want to find more information about her and her family.
    Mikheil told Reuters his mother worked hard her whole life and never travelled outside the village, so she did not tell stories of historic importance, but remembered a lot about the life and people from the neighbourhood.
    "She could only put her signature when she was younger; they had no education in those times. Poor woman worked her whole life. She cultivated tea and gave it to (Soviet) collective farm almost for nothing and that kept us all alive," Mikheil Khvichava said looking at her mother.
    He also said there was no special recipe or special food his mother used to eat adding she still enjoyed simple food she used to have when she was younger.
    "She usually eats matsoni (Georgian yogurt), cheese, porridge. Now we cook for her what she wants," Mikheil said, and added off camera that Antisa still drinks a small glass of home made vodka from time to time when her blood pressure is not high.
    Antisa is the most respected and beloved member of the extended Khvichava family - she has 10 grandchildren, 11 great grandchildren and even great great grandchildren, whose exact number confuses even members of the family.
    Her husband died in 1949, while her elder son passed away 10 years ago.
    Some of Antisa's grandchildren and her son live with her in their modest stone house, while others are scattered around Georgia, including the country's breakaway Abkhazia region, which is in about 10 kilometres from the village of Sachino.
    After graduating just four classes in a local school, Antisa worked all her life, planting and growing tea, corn, vegetables, looking after cattle.
    She did not read a lot and instead of a signature in her new passport, which local officials gave her two years ago, she just put a cross.
    All existing original documents, including her Soviet-era passport, pension book and notes in archive books, shown to Reuters, state that she was born on July 8, 1880. One of the most recently found archived documents dated from 1948.
    Georgian officials want to get Antisa registered by Guinness World Records, as soon as they find all necessary additional documents confirming her age.
    "We have so called 'Form 1,' the document which was created when an old Soviet passport was issued to Antisa Khvichava. It was created in 1979 and this document also says Antisa Khvichava was born in 1880," head of Georgia's Civil Registry Agency, Georgy Vashadze, told Reuters, noting that during Soviet times control over residents and their documents was stricter.
    "We hope we will have much more evidence here, we will have much more documents, to establish the fact that this person is the oldest person in the world," he also said showing Antisa's other documents.
    "It's quite interesting that in Georgia it is not seldom that we have people who are more than 100-years-old," he said smiling and added that good and fresh air could be the reason explaining why people live longer in Georgia.
    Officials hope to find more papers in the regional archives and in the offices left by the Soviet Era before Antisa's 130th birthday on July 8 this year.
    The world's officially certified "oldest living person" is currently Japan's 114-year-old Kama Chinen.
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