The world’s oldest person, a football-loving nun from Brazil, has died at 116 years and 326 days, prompting an outpouring of emotion from her religious sisters and the club she loved.
The international organisation said Caterham was born on August 21, 1909 in Shipton Bellinger, Hampshire, England, the youngest of eight. Â
She worked as a nanny in both India and the UK and met her husband, Major Norman Caterham of the British Army, at a dinner party in 1933.
Sister Inah Canabarro’s death on Wednesday meant Britain’s Ethel Caterham became the oldest living person at 115 years, 252 days, according to LongeviQuest and Guinness World Records.
Canabarro was born to a large family in southern Brazil on June 8, 1908, according to the researchers, but her nephew said she was born two weeks earlier and registered late. They also lived in Gibraltar and Hong Kong, where she established a nursery, and had two daughters – Gem and Anne, both of whom she outlived – after returning to Surrey, the researchers said. She kept driving the Triumph Dolomite owned by her husband, who died almost five decades ago, until she was 97 and played bridge regularly after notching her century.
She moved into a care home in 2020, survived COVID-19 and remains in good health to this day, enjoying sitting in the garden listening to birds or relaxing in her room to classical music.
– Reported with Associated Press
