| Distinctive Feature |
She was born prematurely and there were doubts that she would survive..., Her father, headmaster at the local school, taught her to read and write..., Loved theatre from a young age and wanted an acting career, but her mother disapproved..., Ironically she was a sickly child..., She left her parents' home at the age of 47 to marry Dick van Andel..., She underwent a mastectomy in 1990 after being diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 100..., After her husband's death in 1959, she lived on her own before moving into a retirement home at the age of 105 in 1995..., She became the oldest recognized woman in Europe on the death of Maria Teresa Fumarola Ligorio in May 2003, and the oldest recognized person in Europe on the death of Joan Riudavets in March 2004..., 80 year fan of Ajax football club..., For her 115th birthday in 2005, she received a visit from the daughter-in-law of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and a delegation from the Ajax football club..., She died peacefully in her sleep on 30 August 2005, two months after her 115th birthday..., She had remained mentally alert up until her death, but suffered from increasing frailty..., In the final days of her life, she said, “It’s been nice, but the man upstairs says it’s time to go''..., She agreed to leave her body to science when she was 82..., died of undetected gastric cancer, the tumor in her stomach being the size of a small fist. It was malignant and would likely have killed a far younger person..., Following her death, Elizabeth Bolden became the world's oldest living person..., Claimed longevity was down to being a non smoker and non drinker..., Claimed longevity was down to a serving of herring every day and drinking orange juice..., Claimed longevity was down to a small advocaat with cream on Sundays and holidays and remaining active..., Her autopsy showed no traces of dementia (or other brain diseases), which some scientists had considered an inevitable part of aging..., The complete genome of Van Andel-Schipper has been analysed by the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, who are researching longevity genes..., Quote: ''People who live past 100 tend to have forgiveness as a common character trait. They tend to focus on something positive when something bad happens''..., Quote: "Scientists say 115-year-old's brain was functioning perfectly when she died"..., Oldest living person in the Netherlands (16 February 2001 - 30 August 2005)..., World's oldest living person (29 May 2004 - 30 August 2005)..., Her life spanned three centuries..., Home-schooled because she was too sickly to attend regular classes..., She never learned how to drive and a bicycle was her preferred mode of transport throughout her mobile years...., She carried a smile and sharp memory into her final years, although her vision failed her...
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