Misao Okawa – The World’s Oldest Person Dies Weeks After Celebrating Her 117th Birthday

Misao Okawa, who was recognized by Guinness World Records to be the world’s oldest person, has died just a few weeks after she celebrated her 117th birthday. According to ABC News, Misao Okawa died in the presence of her grandson at a nursing home in Osaka, Japan on Wednesday. The cause of her death was heart failure, an NBC News report adds.

According to Tomohiro Okada, an official from the nursing home where she spent her last days, Misao died peacefully in her sleep. He also praised her for living a healthy, fruitful, and a long life.

“She went so peacefully, as if she had just fallen asleep,” Okada said while adding the she would be “missed a lot” by the officials and staff at the nursing home.

As per official records, Misao Okawa was born on March 5, 1898 as the daughter of a traditional Japanese Kimono maker. She got married in 1919 to her husband Yukio Okawa and had three children. Her husband died in 1931 and she has remained a widow ever since. When asked how she felt after living for 117 years, her answered surprised many people. Misao, even after living for 117 years, felt that her life was too short!

That answer was remarkable considering the fact that Misao had her life span across three separate centuries! She was a teenager when the Titanic sunk and a child when the Wright Brothers flew the first plane. The U.S. has had 20 Presidents in her lifetime! She was also around at the time of both the world wars. She was also alive to see the advance of science and technology and lived long enough to see today’s connected world.

In a separate Inquisitr report earlier, it was said that there were four other persons, all of them women, who have been recorded to have lived longer than Misao Okawa. The record holder for the world’s oldest person ever happens to be Jeanne Calmant, a French woman who at the time of her death in 1997, lived 122 years and 164 days. She is followed by Sarah Knauss, a U.S. citizen who was 119 years and 97 days old when she died in 1999. In fact, had Misao lived for another 248 days since her 117th birthday, she would have become the world’s third oldest person to have ever lived. That, however, did not happen.

(Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)