Jeanne Calment is the world’s longest- living person.
She’s also fascinating af, so I gathered some more facts about her for you:
She once said: “I’ve never had but one wrinkle, and I’m sitting on it.”
She remembered Van Gogh as being “dirty, badly-dressed, and disagreeable,” as well as “very ugly, ungracious, impolite, and sick.”
She outlived her husband, her only child, her only grandson, and a lawyer who hoped to take possession of her apartment.
She later lived off the income of that apartment, which she sold to a man under the agreement that he would not take ownership until she died. She outlived him too; he died after paying $184,000 (double the market value) for the property.
At 114, she made a cameo as herself in the film Vincent and Me, and became the oldest woman to ever appear in a film.
At her 121st birthday, she released a CD called ‘Time’s Mistress,’ which featured her 'reminiscing to a score of rap and other tunes.’
She quit smoking 2 years before she died, which, her doctor says, was not for health reasons, but because she’d gone blind and couldn’t see well-enough to light her cigarettes.
On February 21, 1997, her 122nd birthday, it was announced that she would no longer make public appearances because her health had seriously deteriorated. It was said that this “allowed her to die, as the attention had kept her alive.”
She still managed to live 6 more months, and died on August 4 of unknown causes.
Before and after her death, many claimed to have longer lives, but none was officially proven, therefore making her the reigning record-holder for oldest verified person ever.
She credited her long life, in part, to being calm ('that’s why they call me Calment’) and maintaining her sense of humor:
“I will die laughing.”
Source Source 2
