Oldest lady in Spain (and second in Europe) turns 115

Ana Vela Rubio is not up to having a party, but will probably see her only surviving daughter, who is 89 and lives nearby, albeit her own health is somewhat precarious.

Normally, Ana's daughter would give a statement to the press every year on her mum's birthday, but this year she does not feel up to it.

Ana herself has never, not since she was born on October 29, 1901, been ill – not even the common cold, says David González, director of the La Verneda home for the elderly in Barcelona, which has around 80 permanent residents, 30 who attend daily and another 1,200 who have warden-assisted apartments on the complex.

A seamstress who left school at around the age of 11, Ana Vela was born in Puente Genil (Córdoba province) and moved to Catalunya in the 1940s.

Here, she started working as a seamstress in a tuberculosis hospital in Terrassa (Barcelona province).

Aged 104, she started going to the La Vereda home on a day-centre basis, but still lived in her own home.

She was 109 when she moved into the nursing home, which said it would celebrate today with a 'close-knit' and 'private' ceremony among staff, but says Ana Vela can no longer walk and has lost her cognitive faculties.

Despite this, she is not bed-ridden, but the carers get her up every day at 10.00 and put her in her wheelchair.

She eats liquidised food, as many of the other residents do, but 'eats very well', says González.

Ana goes back to bed at around 16.00 when she starts to get tired.

Although she 'cannot pick up cognitive stimuli' any longer, she is always smiling and her eyesight appears to be good – in fact, her eyes are always open and shining.

González says Ana is 'very special' to the centre's staff, although many other residents are not far behind her in terms of age.

The La Vereda home has four other residents aged 100, 102, 103 and 105, and at least another 40 who are in their 90s.

“She doesn't look 115. We have residents a lot younger who look older than Ana does,” González reveals.

“Although she's very special to us, we don't treat her as a 115-year-old lady; we treat her as one of the group.

“She's always been a super-friendly, super-affectionate and very optimistic person – perhaps that's the secret to her long life.

“And she's very physically strong, which has helped her get through the deaths of three of her four children, and of her brothers and sisters – the last of whom died this year.”

Some of Ana's children have already died from old age, and she also has four grandchildren, various great-grandchildren and a newphew, aged 66, who lives in London, but the rest of her family – other than her 89-year-old daughter – lives in Málaga and cannot get to see her as often as they would like.

Daughter of Pedro and Carmen, a practising Catholic and still very kind and affectionate as she always has been – even though she is no longer able to be the chatterbox she used to be – Ana was a compulsive bookworm when she still could, despite her lack of formal education, and when she was physically able to do so enjoyed going out for walks with her female friends.

Ana Vela Rubio is the oldest lady in Spain – where life expectancy is the fourth-highest in the world and an above-average number of residents are aged over 100, with a few aged over 110 – but she is only the second-oldest in Europe at the moment.

This honour goes to Emma Morano, from Italy, who is now 116.

Both Ana and Emma are among the five oldest people in the world, according to the Gerontology Investigation Group (GIG).

Recently, scientists placed the natural limit of human life at 125 years, but nobody is thought to have lived that long and the world record until now has been Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who died aged 122.

But Mbah Gotho from Indonesia has official documentation to show he was born on December 31, 1870, meaning if he lives until New Year's Eve, he will be 146 years old.

His papers need to be independently verified to award him the title of longest-ever living human, however – others who have claimed to be older, James Olofintuyi, 171, from Nigeria and Dhaqabo Ebba from Ethiopia, 163, were unable to prove their age officially so cannot be considered as world-record holders.

The photo, provided by the nursing home, shows Ana Vela Rubio when she was still 114 (right) next to her daughter, then aged 88 (left).