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The centenarian in this video is here to tell you that you’re never too old to be a hardcore gamer, and she stresses the fact that gaming can do wonders for your mental health as she happily plays her beloved Nintendo DS. And I got to use the word centenarian in a blog post that relates to video games, so yay life!
Rachel Gilbert recently celebrated her 100th birthday -by indulging in her need for speed. Gilbert, of Laconia, New Hampshire, took a spin around the track in a pace car at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in honor of her birthday.
As part of this ultimate birthday celebration Gilbert and her family will receive suite passes overlooking “The Magic Mile,” where they will enjoy every lap of the LENOX Industrial Tools 301.
Gilbert will also have the opportunity to rub elbows with the stars of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series during the Sunday morning drivers’ meeting.
The longtime race fan was surprised with this once in a lifetime opportunity from her family and Gappens. When told she would be riding around the speedway in the pace car, she was ready to leave for Loudon immediately.
Included in her birthday package was a race car cake, an official LENOX Industrial Tools 301 hat, NHMS jacket and birthday card. Her favorite driver Carl Edwards even signed and sent an official crew shirt and birthday wishes.
“My mom has always been a major race fan. She doesn’t miss a race on TV,” says daughter Marie Anne Mills.
Gilbert has been a fan of auto racing for over 50 years, and the folks at the track appreciate her. Link -via Fark
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Eunice Sanborn, who outlived three husbands, was 114 years old when she passed away Monday at her home in Texas, according to caretaker David French. Or was she 115?
Census records show Sanborn was born on July 20, 1896, in Lake Charles, La., according to the Los Angeles-based Gerontology Research Group, which listed Sanborn as the world’s oldest person.
But French said Sanborn always maintained the Census Bureau had made a mistake and she was really born in 1895. She celebrated what she believed was her 115th birthday on July 20, Agence France-Presse reported.
Either way, with Sanborn’s death, the oldest person in the world is now 114-year-old Besse Cooper of Georgia. Link
Isabella Blyth of Gorgie, Scotland turned 106 years old on Saturday. She looks much younger, and attributes her long and healthy life to the fact that she’s never been romantically involved.
The plucky pensioner, who celebrates her birthday tomorrow, has no regrets about living a life of abstinence and in fact believes it has made her physically and mentally strong.
Miss Blyth’s niece, Sheena Campbell, who visits her aunt a couple of times a week, said they would mark the day with a cake, champagne and a reminisce about the past.
She said: “Isa is an amazing character and you wouldn’t believe she was 106.
“She says that she has never felt the need for a romance and has never had time for a man. She had a high-powered job as a private secretary with North British Distilleries, which meant she was always busy.
This reminds me of an old joke in which the punch line reads, “Why would you want to?” Link -via Arbroath
Antisa Khvichava is celebrating her 130th birthday today in Sachire, Georgia. She worked as a tea and corn picker until she was 85 years old, then retired and now lives with her 40-year-old grandson.
“I’ve always been healthy, and I’ve worked all my life — at home and at the farm,” said Khvichava, in a bright dress and headscarf, her withering lips rejuvenated by shiny red lipstick. Sitting in the chair and holding her cane, Khvichava spoke quietly through an interpreter since she never went to school to learn Georgian and speaks only the local language, Mingrelian.
Her age couldn’t immediately be independently verified. Her birth certificate was lost — one of the great number to have disappeared in the past century amid revolutions and a civil war which followed the collapse of the Russian Empire.
But Meurnishvili showed two Soviet-era documents that he says attest to her age. Scores of officials, neighbors, friends, and descendants backed up her claim as the world’s top senior.
Suspiciously, Khvichava’s son is 70 years old, which would mean Khvichava was 60 years old when she gave birth to him. Link
John William Finn {wiki} of Pine Valley, California reached the age of 100 on Thursday. He was honored on the occasion by a biography in the Ramona Sentinel newspaper.
John William Finn is our nation’s oldest living recipient of its highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor (MoH). He is also the last surviving MoH recipient who earned his medal on Dec. 7, 1941, the last living recipient of the Navy’s MoH from World War II, and the only MoH recipient having his Navy rating, that of an Aviation Ordinanceman, to ever be awarded the MoH in the history of the United States Navy.
…when the attack came on that first Sunday morning in December, Chief Finn single-handedly mounted a 50-caliber machine gun on a stand on the base’s aircraft parking ramp and began firing on any attacking enemy aircraft that he could bear on.
John’s position was totally exposed to enemy strafing and bombing attacks, but he kept it up for more than two hours while under attack, despite being wounded five times and in severe pain. Fellow sailors implored him to seek medical care for his wounds, but John steadfastly refused to vacate his firing position until he received a direct order to do so from a superior officer.
Twenty pieces of shrapnel were removed from John’s body by the base’s medical staff
Finn was honored by local civic organizations last month. He is spending his birthday as a guest of George W. Bush and his wife in Crawford, Texas. Link -via Fark
Alfonso De Marco was seven years old when he emigrated from Italy with his family. They settled in Eastbourne, East Sussex, England where they lived in an apartment above the ice cream shop his father ran. That was in 1909, and the family had occupied the building for many years already. De Marco still lives in the same apartment 100 years later. De Marco ran the ice cream shop himself until he retired in 1973. Although he could go live with any of his three daughters, he prefers to stay in his home, even at 107 years old.
‘My daughters grew up here, and my father lived here, so I cannot imagine living anywhere else, or anywhere better.’
DeMarco’s daughter Pierina said,
‘He can still get up and down the stairs on his own, and he still laughs and jokes about.
‘His sisters lived to ripe old ages as well, so he must have good genes – either that or all the ice cream he has eaten has done the trick.’
I’ll go with that last idea! Link -via J-Walk Blog
Sakhan Dosova of Karaganda in northern Kazakhstan has documents that say she will celebrate her 130th birthday on Friday. Census officials discovered that her documents all agree that her birthdate is March 27, 1879. Records show she was on the books as 47 years old when a census was taken under the Stalinist regime in 1926.
Nailya Dosayeva, head of social and demographical department of Karaganga regional statistics bureau, said there is no doubt that her claim is authentic.
‘Sakhan Dosova was found during our census held in February and March. She has an old passport and documents which are genuine, and based on these we can judge her age as being correct.’
The local mayor Islam Togaybayev went to visit her ‘to personally congratulate her on such an achievement and show his respect’, said his spokesman.
Other officials are not so sure.
Some Kazakh bureaucrats want more checks to be done to ascertain the accuracy of her claim, pointing out that birth records in Kazakhstan in the 19th century are notoriously unreliable.
‘We can see that this is turning into a big story and for the sake of our country, we need to be sure her claim is correct,’ said one official.
According to one version of her life, she must have given birth to several children over the age of 60, he said.
‘There is no doubt she is very old. But is she really 130? Or was there a white lie long ago which was never corrected? We need to find out.’
Dosova attributes her longevity to a sense of humor. Link -via Unique Daily
