Smoker dies at 117
Published 11 March, 2008, 22:43
A reindeer breeder in Russia’s far east, who’s died at the age of 117, has become an unlikely hero of smokers everywhere. Varvara Semennikova smoked all of her life until she was 100 years old!
Varvara was possibly the oldest person in the world, but paperwork delays stopped the Guinness Book of Records from recognising her feat.
She was twice married and leaves behind a large family in the Yakutsk region, including three adopted children, and more than a dozen grand and great-grandchildren. She had her own children, but they died.
Most of her life she had looked after reindeer and hunted for a living.
She believed the secret of her long living was in her marriage to a young man. She met her future husband at 44, and he was 27 years younger than her!
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