A remarkable celebration unfolded in Brazil as Cicera Maria dos Santos, believed to be the world’s oldest living woman at 117 years old, marked her birthday alongside her 107-year-old sister, Josefa Maria de Conceicao. Cicera’s reported birth year is 1906, and if confirmed, this would make her one year older than the current Guinness World Record holder, Maria Branyas Morera, from Spain, who is 116 years old.
The sisters, surrounded by family and friends, celebrated Cicera’s birthday on September 23. The festivities featured a colorful cake, snacks, and a round of applause from the guests.
When asked about the secret to their long lives, both sisters emphasized their faith in God and a proper diet. Cicera said, “The peace of the Lord be with us. Who can do more than God? Everything is God.” Josefa added, “You have to eat. Beans, corn, cassava, potatoes.”
Cicera spent most of her life in the Brazilian countryside, where she sold chickens at the local market in Paraiba, a state in the northeast of the nation. Remarkably, they come from a lineage that descended from enslaved people, with Josefa’s grandson, Ruan, sharing that their family’s history traces back to those who endured slavery. Despite the challenges of history and even the recent COVID-19 pandemic, they have persevered.
While Cicera’s extraordinary age has not yet been officially recognized by Guinness World Records, it remains unclear whether she or her family plan to contact the organization to establish her as the “world’s oldest living woman.”
