Dear LPG,

I have been retired for a while now but I have learned that I may have quite a long way to go before I meet my maker.  We all see the statistics on the news from time to time and the one thing that is sure is that we older people are living longer. 

Did you know that Jamaican Born Violet Brown was recognised as the oldest living person in the world until she died on September 15^th last year?  She was a 117-year-old Jamaican woman who once worked for 'masters' on a sugar plantation and credits her longevity to good genes and studying the Bible.

Supercentenarian Violet Mosse-Brown was born on March 10, 1900, making her 117 years and 189 days old.  She lived in Duanvale, Trelawny, Jamaica, in the same house she was born in, and which has been in her family for 200 years, and worked as a plantation worker cutting cane for her masters, and later as a maid in their homes', said her granddaughter. 

She inherited the title of the oldest verifiable person in the world when Emma Morano, who was 117 years and 137 days old, died at home in Verbania, Italy on April 15.  Her doctor said she passed away 'tranquilly' while she sat in her armchair.

Violet, known as ‘Aunt V’, was the last living subject of Queen Victoria, as Jamaica was part of the British West Indies when she was born in 1900, and according to her foundation's biography and on her 115th birthday, Queen Elizabeth II sent her a congratulatory letter.  

She attributes her long life to the good book, saying that her success is due to: 'My faith in serving God, and believing strongly in the teaching of the bible.' 

Genetics may have something to do with it too.  Her son Harold Fairweather is 97, making him the oldest person in the world who has a living parent, and her parents both lived to 96 years old, according to the Jamaica Observer.

So there are things to be learned from her.  Hard work will not affect life expectancy; we can look to our parents to work out how we are likely to fare in the life expectancy stakes and we are all living longer (all of which we knew before). 

117-year-old Nabi Tajima, from Japan has officially been named as Violet’s successor, although Mbah Ghoto, a man from Indonesia, who was reported to be 146 when he died, in May this year, could also lay claim to the title.

GB, Camberwell

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