117-Year-Old South African Woman Offers Her Secret Of Longevity
Linah Mmola, a 117-year-old woman in Tembisa, South Africa recently celebrated a belated birthday and told the media her secret for such a long and healthy life.
Mmola recently turned 117-years-old and says that the secret to her long life is staying true to one man, along with eating good and healthy food.
Bear in mind this lady wouldn’t be able to display her real age on Facebook, who have an upper limit of 109 years, but she is still going strong.
The 117-year-old was celebrating a belated birthday, as Mmola was actually born on January 2, 1898. The reasons for celebrating six months down the line were not explained, but possibly news of the world’s oldest person turning 116 recently made the family realize the importance of her impressive age.
According to Eye Witness News, Mmola celebrated her belated 117th birthday Saturday with all her family, including her only daughter right through to her great, great grandchildren. Ages at the party ranged from a mere 3-years-old right through to a 102-year-old family member and, of course, 117-year-old Mmola herself.
While there is no official proof, as yet, of Mmola’s age, her daughter, Sarah Bothane, said that “She raised me very good” and explained that the family is trying to track down her 117-year-old mother’s original ID documents to prove the fact. She did, however, verbally confirm that her mother was born on January 2, 1898.
117-year-old Tembisa woman reveals secret to long life http://t.co/nZc11064se pic.twitter.com/wcOgipxsOL
— Eyewitness News (@ewnupdates) July 11, 2015
As reported by Iafrica, born in Limpopo and now living in Tembisa near Johannesburg, 117-year-old Mmola says that staying true to the same good man for many years had helped her longevity, along with the spinach and pap (corn meal porridge) that she always made for her family.
117-year-old gogo Linah Mmola says the secret to a long life is one man and good food. Y’all heard?!!
— thembekile (@ThembiMrototo) July 11, 2015
Looking back at her life, Mmola says she was born in the late 1800s, in the year of the first Boer War in South Africa. However, according to Wikipedia, that war ran from December 1880 through to March 1881, predating Mmola’s arrival into the world by some years. The Boer War was fought between the United Kingdom and the Boers (or Dutch settlers) in the country at that time.
Now the 117-year-old says she just wants to live long enough to see her three-bedroom home in Tembisa restored to its original glory. Happy birthday Linah Mmola!
[Image: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Christian]
