World’s oldest person celebrates her 117th birthday

March 04, 2015 12:14 pm | Updated 12:14 pm IST - TOKYO

Japan's Misao Okawa, 117 (centre), who is recognised as the world's oldest living person by Guinness World Records, poses with her relatives and Ward Mayor Takehiro Ogura (right), at a nursing home in Osaka, western Japan.

Japan's Misao Okawa, 117 (centre), who is recognised as the world's oldest living person by Guinness World Records, poses with her relatives and Ward Mayor Takehiro Ogura (right), at a nursing home in Osaka, western Japan.

The world’s oldest person says 117 years doesn’t seem like such a long time.

Misao Okawa, the daughter of a kimono maker, made the comment on Wednesday, at a celebration a day before her 117th birthday. Appropriately, she was wearing a pink kimono decorated with cherry blossom prints.

Ms. Okawa, born in Osaka on March 5, 1898, was recognized as the world’s oldest person by Guinness World Records in 2013. She’s slowed down in recent months and is having trouble hearing, but she still eats well and remains in good health, according to her Osaka nursing home.

Ms. Okawa married her husband, Yukio, in 1919, and they had three children two daughters and a son. She now has four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Her husband died in 1931.

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