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With just two months left until her 120th birthday, Deolira Gliceria Pedro da Silva, a great-grandmother from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is making strides to be officially recognized as the world’s oldest living person by the Guinness World Records. Currently, the title belongs to Inah Canabarro Lucas, a 116-year-old nun from the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. However, Deolira’s family and medical team are confident that she will soon claim the title from Lucas.
Family’s Confidence in Her Age
“She is still not in the book, but she is the oldest in the world according to the documents we have on her, as I recently discovered,” said Deolira’s granddaughter, Doroteia Ferreira da Silva, who is 60 years old and half her grandmother’s age.
The documents confirm that Deolira was born on March 10, 1905, in the rural area of Porciuncula, a small town in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Despite not yet being officially listed by Guinness, her family firmly believes she holds the record for being the oldest living person.
Deolira Gliceria Pedro da Silva Living a Peaceful Life in Itaperuna
Deolira now resides in a brightly painted house in Itaperuna, Rio de Janeiro, where she is cared for by her two granddaughters, Doroteia and Leida Ferreira da Silva, aged 64. Her health is monitored closely by a team of doctors and researchers who are interested in studying her extraordinary longevity.
Geriatric doctor Juair de Abreu Pereira, who has been Deolira’s physician for some time, shared his observations: “Mrs. Deolira, in 2025, will be 120 years old. She is in a good general state of health for her condition, and she is not taking any medication.”
Deolira Gliceria Pedro da Silva: Challenges in Documenting Her Age
Despite her remarkable age, Deolira’s journey to official recognition faces a challenge due to the destruction of much of her original documentation in a series of floods nearly twenty years ago. As a result, verifying her age has become more complex.
Guinness World Records confirmed it cannot yet verify the receipt of Deolira’s application, noting that it receives numerous claims from around the globe for the title of oldest living person.
Mateus Vidigal, a researcher at the University of São Paulo, has been studying Deolira as part of a project to understand Brazil’s growing super-elderly population. Although the lack of comprehensive documentation may present hurdles, Vidigal maintains that Deolira is certainly over 100 years old, emphasizing that her case has not been excluded from research due to her unique longevity.
