Qamile Marra was born when the Ottoman Empire still ruled her homeland.
Today, she is 117 years old and living in the age of artificial intelligence. This Albanian woman has spent nearly her entire life in the countryside, in the village of Ferras, where she grows food, cares for animals, and walks through her garden alongside her son. She lived through wars, political changes, and more than a century of transformations, yet still keeps to the routine of someone who never needed anything beyond her land.
Her family has a birth record from 1945, a passport from 1978, and a recent ID card. All three documents give the same date: August 19, 1909. If confirmed, she would surpass the British woman Ethel Caterham by just two days; Caterham is officially recognized as the world’s oldest living person. But LongeviQuest, the organization that specializes in validating such cases, warned that the available evidence is not yet sufficient, and the family has already asked for the documents to be examined.
When AFP asked her about her secret, Qamile did not talk about diets or formulas. She replied with a single sentence: “You live as long as God has ordained”.