Jeanne Calment turned 122: What did the world’s oldest person do right?

Almost forgotten

Jeanne Calment
Smoking for 100 years, still riding a bike at 100 – how did this woman get so old?

The Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment is considered the oldest person in the world – she was 122. Five theses on how she was able to reach her biblical age.

If we can’t be immortal, we at least want to grow old – and as healthy as possible. But how do we do it? Jeanne Calment is the person with the longest life: the French woman died in 1997 at the age of 122 in Provence, where she had lived her whole life. Although others – such as the Indonesian Mbah Gotho – claim to have lived longer than her, Jeanne is the only person whose biblical age has been scientifically verified.

When she was declared the oldest living French woman on her 114th birthday, she was naturally asked what her secret is. “The good Lord just forgot me“she said mischievously. If that’s true? Five more theses on how Jeanne Calment could have gotten so old.

Thesis 1: Good genes

Many of their relatives lived longer than average. The mother died at 86, the father at 93, her brother was 97. Daughter Yvonne was less fortunate, she died of tuberculosis at the age of 36. The same applies to grandson Frédéric, whom Jeanne raised after the death of her daughter: he died in a traffic accident at the age of 36. Jeanne’s husband died of food poisoning in 1942.

Thesis 2: Good life

Jeanne spent her whole life under the Provençal sun and only had to work a little. In 1896 she married Fernand Nicolas Calment, a wealthy cloth merchant. The marriage enabled her to live a comfortable life in which she could pursue her varied interests.

Thesis 3: Sport and (spiritual) movement

Jeanne was always on the move. She played tennis, rode a bike at 100, loved swimming, roller skating and hunting. At 85 she started fencing. And as she said, she “ran, ran, ran”. Her biographers report that in her hometown of Arles, everyone “knew that little old woman who ran all over town and jumped down the steps in front of the church of St. Trophime like a child”. She played the piano passionately, loved opera and could do mental arithmetic well into old age.

Thesis 4: Pleasure

Jeanne grew so old despite having smoked all her life. She started when she was 16 and didn’t try to quit until she was 117. A year later she started again. It wasn’t until she was 119 that she couldn’t light a cigarette herself because she was blind, and she hated asking for help. She reportedly drank a glass of port every day and loved cakes, chocolate and garlic-heavy aioli.

Thesis 5: Willfulness

Jeanne lived alone until she was 110. When her boiler froze in the winter of 1985, she is said to have climbed onto a table to thaw the water with a candle and started a small fire. Only then did she move to a nursing home. There she is said to have insisted on her own daily routine. She woke up at 6:45 am, meditated, said prayers, listened to classical music and did stretching exercises. That only ended when she broke her hip at 115 and was confined to a wheelchair.

She has also remained young in her head: at the age of 121, Jeanne Calment released the CD “Maîtresse du temps” (“Mistress of Time”), on which she sang memoirs to techno, of all things, in order to collect money for her old people’s home.

Sources: NZZ, Spiegel, Wikipedia

Bridget