Virginia Call's family is certain she's 114 years
old.
Call, who wears a beatific smile and a head wrap,
has no birth records. But members of her family, who
dote on her, say they are sure of the birth date they
have long celebrated.
To scientists studying the process of aging and life
spans, her true age is of considerable interest.
Investigators have studied Call, and their best
estimate is that the Chicago woman is 110.
But here's the wrinkle: The older someone claims to
be, the more evidence needed to prove it; and yet the
older someone is, the less likely it is that there is
good evidence of his or her birth date.
While a four-year difference may seem trivial after
more than a century of life, researchers find it
tremendously important. Few people make it from 110
to 114, and those who do are of special interest to
science.
"Although the vast majority of people alive today have
birth records, 110 years ago they did not have birth
records," said Robert Young, the senior claims
investigator for the Gerontology Research Group who
has studied Call's case. "If you don't validate the data,
there is no way to come up with scientifically valid
results."
Currently, there are 75 people in the world who are
confirmed to be 110 or older, though researchers say
the number could really be three times that.
