The oldest French woman. Long-liver Zhanna Kalman: biography, life story and interesting facts

An amazing woman, one of the oldest people, who lived in the world for almost 123 years.

Jeanne Louise Calment was born on February 21, 1875 in Arles, where she lived all her life. Her father was a shipbuilder.

Zhanna got married at the age of 21 - in 1896. They lived together until 1942 - until the death of their husband (he died under strange circumstances, after eating a dessert with cherries that were spoiled, as it later turned out).

In 1898, the couple had a daughter, Yvonne, who in 1926 gave her parents a grandson, Frederick.

Fate wanted Zhanna to outlive not only her husband, but also her own daughter (who died of pneumonia at the age of 36), and her grandson (who died in a car accident in 1963). On the other hand, Jeanne Calment's parents turned out to be real long-livers - her father lived 93 years, her mother 86 years, and her brother, Francois, managed to live to 9

7 years of age.

At all times, Jeanne Calment led an active lifestyle. For example, she began learning fencing in her nineties, and rode a bicycle until she was almost a hundred years old.

In 1965, at the age of ninety, Jeanne Kalman was left completely alone. She had no heirs and the long-liver had to sell the apartment on her own. Then she decided on the so-called “reverse mortgage” - an agreement that is often practiced in France. The contract was signed with the lawyer François Raffet, who bought the Calman property in installments and had to pay her a certain amount annually. As usual, such payments do not last more than ten years, but not in the case of Jeanne Kalman. The woman lived much longer. And she even survived Raffe, who died of an incurable disease in 1995

oh disease. After his death, the lawyer's widow was forced to continue making payments and more than once regretted such an unsuccessful deal.

Indeed, Zhanna could boast of excellent health. She smoked all her life and quit the habit at age 117, just five years before her death. She never refused good wine and delicious food, ate garlic and plenty of vegetables. Whenever possible, Zhanna avoided noisy quarrels and other conflicts.

Until she was 110 years old, the centenarian lived in her own home, after which she decided to move to a nursing home. She remained active there.

Jeanne Calment was in excellent shape until she was 114 years and 11 months old when she fell and broke her hip. Afterwards it was difficult for her to walk.

And yet Kalman managed to live to be 122 years old.

Jeanne Kalman for many gerontologists is almost like Joan of Arc for the French. Symbol, legend, shrine. Record Joan of Arles Every true fighter against aging knows that his life expectancy is 122 years and 164 days. It was installed in 1997 and since then no one has even managed to come close to it - the second place is barely over 119 years old, and the third place is 117. Of the living centenarians, the oldest is only 115 years old. Given that after 100 years of age the annual probability of dying hovers around the 1/2 mark, the chances of a Centenarian living to be 122 years old are incredibly low.

But in gerontological circles, no one questions Zhanna’s achievement. On the contrary, she is described as “the most validated centenarian.” And indeed, everything is in order with her documents - she was born and lived all her life in one place, in the city of Arles in the south of France, and, being from a fairly wealthy bourgeois family, appears in many official sources. However, correct documents do not guarantee the absence of fraud, because someone younger may be living according to your documents. For example, your daughter.

Was there a girl?

And Zhanna had a daughter. Yvonne Marie Nicole Calment was born in 1898, when my mother was almost 23, and died, according to documents, exactly on her 36th birthday, in 1934. Moreover, the certificate of her death was issued on the basis of the testimony not of a doctor, but only of a certain unemployed 71-year-old woman who “saw her dead”:

And here's the thing, in those rare photos of Yvonne that have survived - and in her old age, Zhanna ordered all family photos to be burned - she is the one who most resembles the woman who lived until 1997. Moreover, the photo of Yvonne in her youth for some reason became the “calling card” of the youngest Jeanne, and is passed off as her even on such respected sources as Wikipedia:

Let's analyze this photo in detail. Here it is in good resolution, and slightly colored by the algorithm:

Take a look at those daring eyes opposite:

Now think about it: does this look like a photo taken in 1897, when Jeanne was 22? Or is it more like the much more progressive, if not debauched, 1920s? The facial expression and hairstyle add credibility to the second option, but I’m not an expert here. Therefore, I called for help from those who understand this, and “fashionable verdict” coincided with my assumption:

Indeed, the haircut is much more similar to the style of the 1920s. Here, for example, is the Queen Mother in 1927:

Finally, what is most interesting, in one of the biographies of Jeanne, the photo with a bow is signed precisely as “Yvonne, daughter of Jeanne,” and above it is a photo of young Jeanne, much more in line with the Victorian spirit of the late 19th century:

Several more photos of young Zhanna have been preserved:

And also a photo of Zhanna with her husband (Yvonne’s father):

Main clue

Let's now look at mother and daughter at a more mature age; fortunately, we are lucky that one such photo has still been preserved. Here it is:

In my opinion, there can be no doubt that Yvonne is on the left and Jeanne is on the right. Here is a photo of the real Jeanne in chronological order:

It seems to me that even the dress is the same (on the left - photo from Zhanna’s ID card):

But the “girl with the bow” is, of course, Yvonne:

And if you compare the photo of young and adult Yvonne with photographs of elderly and old Zhanna, then the similarities are also visible to the naked eye:

Key photo

In my opinion, the photo above is a clue. Who is it, Jeanne or Yvonne? Because, just like in Highlander, by that time there should have been only one left. If Yvonne really died in 1934, at the age of 36, there is no way she could have looked that old.

For a full analysis, let's take a step back. Here are two interesting photos. The first one shows young Jeanne, and the second one shows young Yvonne trying to recreate the first one. It seems Yvonne liked to copy her mother from a fairly early age:

We see a clear difference in the chin and lower jaw. Yvonne also has a longer, wider neck with a more pronounced jugular fossa. Here's a close-up:

Let's now compare the photos of young Yvonne with our mystery photo. Chin, lower jaw, neck, jugular fossa — everything is very similar:

The parts circled in red and green are generally identical:

What if you compare it with Zhanna?

The woman in the middle photo has a much wider, more rounded face than Jeanne in the far right photo. Her neck is longer and wider, and her jugular notch is more pronounced.
Below I've included a photo of the old "Jeanne" along with two verified photos of the young Yvonne on the left:

When you look at these four photographs together, there is little doubt that this is all one person, and that the mysterious photograph belongs to him — Yvonne. I think everything is clear:

By the way, the shape of the old woman’s nose is more similar to the shape of Yvonne’s father’s nose than to the shape of the young Jeanne’s nose:

Well, old Zhanna doesn’t look like her younger self - neither in her nose, nor in her jaw, nor in her chin:

At the same time, we must pay tribute - Yvonne’s parents were similar to each other, which is no wonder, since they were second cousins.

Transformation motive

Okay, enough guessing from the photo, let's move on to other interesting questions. First of all, why would Yvonne need to impersonate her mother? The answer is prosaic - so that the family can avoid inheritance tax, which in 1934, at the time of the death of the real Jeanne, could reach as much as 38%. Their family could experience all the delights of this tax only a few years earlier, when Zhanna’s father died in 1931 (Zhanna’s mother died earlier in 1924).

The scale of the Kalman couple’s family store can be appreciated from the photo below. It was not just a shop, it was a large multi-storey house, which her husband, Fernand Calment, inherited from his parents, and which he headed from an early age - his father died in 1886, when he was only 18 years old. Fernand not only worked in this house, but also lived there with his mother. Zhanna also moved there after her marriage.

In the photo below, Jeanne’s husband himself is in front of the window of his store in 1907 (in the background, in a light jacket, marked with the right arrow):

This is what the son of the longest-serving employee, marked with the second arrow in the photo above, has to say about the store and the Kalman family:

My poor father, Marius Maxence, who worked in this store for 7 years before the First World War and 20 years after, was the oldest employee when the store closed. After 27 years of faithful service (and a medal of labor), he was forced to change his profession.
…
The Calment store had a very large area between Antonefle Place, rue Gambetta, rue St Esteve and rue Jean Granaud. The Rue Gambetta side was reserved for the sale of fabrics of all kinds. With large shelves up to the ceiling and ladders to access the various shelves.
…
I remember in the 1930s I came to my father's store (I lived only a hundred meters from the bridge). I played with Fredy Bilott, the grandson born of Yvonne Calment's marriage to Colonel Bilott. We were several months apart, and we hid behind banks or furniture.
…
The Calment family was well known in Arles. You could even say that this was a family of bourgeois who knew how to live, including Colonel Bilott and his wife Yvonne Calment.

My eye caught the bold line. Could an eight-year-old boy remember how well Yvonne Calment “knew how to live” if she officially died in 1934, when he was only 8 years old, like her son Fredi? Perhaps the line highlighted in bold is some kind of “Easter egg” for our own people, a kind of wink? Because this letter was written for the local Arleans Bulletin and was hardly intended for a wide audience.

By the way, it is interesting that Yvonne is no longer listed in the 1931 census. Her parents are there, as are her husband and son, everyone lives together, even the servants are accounted for, but Yvonne is not:

“Copying error,” say the validators of the authenticity of Madame Calment’s record. Well, maybe. Or maybe the real Jeanne was already dead? And Yvonne passed herself off as her father's wife, confusing census takers so much that they first recorded her under the name of her grandmother, Mary (see above). And 3 years later, Yvonne decided to officially legitimize her “death,” and chose her birthday, January 19, as the date of this very death. Quite in the spirit of a mischievous and daring lover of hunting and fencing. Okay, let's not guess, let's look at other inconsistencies.

van Gogh

One of the inconsistencies is related to Van Gogh, about whom old lady Kalman spoke very unflatteringly, calling him “an ugly, rude, fumes-smelling brothel-loving guy.” Allegedly, Zhanna crossed paths with him in their family store in 1888 and even sold him either paints or pencils. Moreover, in some sources, for some reason, the owner of the store is called Zhanna’s father, and in others, his uncle. But Zhanna’s parents did not have any store; her father was a hereditary shipbuilder, and a very successful and wealthy one. The store was owned by Jeanne's second cousin (the father of her future husband), and even he had been dead for 2 years in 1888 - the year when Van Gogh came to Arles for 15 months.

In any case, it’s somehow difficult for me to imagine a 13-year-old girl from a wealthy bourgeois family working behind a store counter in 1888. At least, neither Jeanne nor Yvonne worked a day in their adult lives. By the way, according to the validators, at that time Zhanna was supposed to be studying at a Catholic boarding school (Benet private boarding school) - it would be interesting to confirm this data in the school’s archival documents, and at the same time look at the daily routine of the students.

In another interview in 1989, Jeanne claimed that her husband introduced her to Van Gogh in his store when he came in to buy canvases there. So he said: “Look, this is my wife!” Considering that Jeanne was only 13 years old in 1888, this sounds strange. But her future husband (and Yvonne’s father) most likely worked in the store at that time - he was 20 years old, and after his father’s death it was quite logical that he took over the management of the family business. Perhaps he once told his wife and daughter about his meeting with Van Gogh, and Jeanne then began to attribute this meeting to herself.

Worst insurance deal of the century

It was in the building where the Calment family shop was located until 1937 that in 1965 “Jeanne” used her apartment for “the worst insurance deal of the century” - undertaking to transfer it after death to a certain Andre-Francois Raffray in exchange for an obligation to pay her a lifetime monthly pension at 2500 francs. Over the next 30-odd years, Raffret paid Zhanna an amount much greater than the cost of the apartment, and never received the coveted living space, dying of cancer. Moreover, payments to Zhanna did not stop after his death.

By the way, it is curious that this case is described in Jean-Pierre Daniel’s book “Insurance and Its Secrets” as a scam known in narrow circles of insurers. Here's what he writes:

Everyone remembers that Jeanne Calment officially died at the age of 122, on August 4, 1997. It was said at the time that this lady had a life annuity, and this is true. This rent was provided by a large French company, which was not pleased with such exceptional longevity. Moreover, the company understood perfectly well that it was not paying Jeanne Calment, but her daughter. In fact, after the death of the true Jeanne Calment, her daughter, who was no longer a child herself at that point, took on her mother's identity in order to continue receiving an annuity. The insurance company discovered identity theft, but with consent - or on demand? - the authorities did not make this public, since the “elder of the French” was a legend.

About “took the identity of her mother, to continue receiving rent“The author clearly messed up, since Zhanna began receiving rent only in 1965, 31 years after the death of her daughter-mother. It is also not entirely clear how exactly the obligations to pay the annuity, which Raffray assumed, were secured by the insurance company, although it is quite possible that he decided to hedge his risk and insured Zhanna’s life in advance in a special way, which provided for more than a one-time payment after her death, and monthly payments before- starting, say, from 100 years.

More and more wonderful

But let's return to Zhanna herself. Another interesting circumstance is that after Yvonne’s death in 1934, her husband, who was 43 years old at that time, never remarried, and until the end of his days he continued to live with his “mother-in-law” and his son in the same house. This, of course, does not prove anything, but at least it does not contradict the hypothesis that Yvonne did not die, but simply began to impersonate her mother.

In 1942, Yvonne's father and Jeanne's husband died from cherry poisoning, and in 1963, Jeanne's grandson and son-in-law (or Yvonne's son and husband) died. After this, Zhanna led a rather quiet, if not secretive, life. Even on her 100th birthday, she refused the offer of the mayor of Arles to organize a public celebration of this very rare achievement. The mayor himself recalled very interesting details:

“When I learned that the man from Arles was turning 100 years old,” said Jacques, “I had to, according to tradition, go to her house, inviting her family, and bring a gift. It was a refusal, polite but firm. Madame Calment did not want a ceremony: no drums, no trumpets, no gifts, no cake. She was assured that no one would know about her centenary. Then Zhanna agreed to come to the mayor’s office herself. I waited for Zhanna in the reception room for a long time, until it turned out that one of the sitting women, which looked difficult to give more than eighty, and was the hero of the day.”

Professional gerontologists who studied her phenomenon were also amazed at Jeanne’s paradoxical preservation. Her ability to stand and move without assistance at 113 years old was surprising:

Moreover, at 114 years old, her height was 150 cm, which was only 2 cm less than her reported height as an adult:
Sometimes Zhanna seemed to let it slip in her memories, either calling her husband her father, or saying that her mother’s surname Gilles was the surname of her grandmother, although Zhanna did not have a grandmother with that surname, only a grandfather (in those days, wives did not take their husband’s surname ). One of these mistakes was when Zhanna said that as a child she was taken to school by the maid Martha Fusson, although, according to the 1911 census, Martha Fusson was born 10 years old Later Only Yvonne, with whom she lived together, could take Jeanne to school, according to the same census.

Of course, every single error in recollection or inconsistency in Jeanne’s biography could be attributed to chance. But taken together, they all make you, at a minimum, want to understand much more deeply into the biography of this extraordinary woman. I hope the gerontological community will support this idea and not perceive it as sacrilege.

In conclusion, I want to say that almost the entire evidence base on which this material is based is the merit of

1895, Zhanna is 20 years old

The official world record for life expectancy belongs to a French woman. Jeanne Kalman. She lived 122 years and 164 days (1875 - 1997).

Birth certificate of Jeanne Calment

Jeanne Louise Calment has seen a lot in her life. By the time construction of the Eiffel Tower was completed, she was 14 years old. That same year, she met Vincent Van Gogh, who came to buy fabrics at her father's store. She later recalled that she did not like Van Gogh at all: “He was dirty, poorly dressed and gloomy.”

At the age of 21, she married her second cousin Fernand Calment, a wealthy store owner, which allowed Jeanne not to work, but to practice her hobbies: tennis, cycling, swimming, skating, hunting with her husband, piano and going to the opera.
At the same age, Zhanna started smoking. They say that all her life Madame limited herself to a couple of cigarettes a day.

1897, Zhanna is 22 years old

When World War I broke out, Jeanne's husband's business survived the post-war depression, but was killed by a dessert made from spoiled canned cherries. Fernand Calment died in 1942, four years before their golden wedding. In addition to her husband, Jeanne was survived by her daughter Yvonne, who died in 1934 from pneumonia, and her only grandson, Frederic, who died in 1960 due to a motorcycle accident.

1915, Zhanna is 40 years old

Jeanne attended Hugo's funeral. At 114, she starred in the Van Gogh documentary Vincent and Me, becoming the oldest actress in the world. Jeanne Kalman also became the oldest patient of the surgeons, after hip surgery at 115 years old.

1935, Zhanna is 60 years old

Zhanna quit smoking at the age of 117, and this was not due to her health, but to the fact that by that time Zhanna, who had almost lost her sight, found it unpleasant to ask someone to light a cigarette every time.

Interesting facts about Jeanne Louise Calment

Jeanne Louise Calment lived 122 years, 5 months and 14 days.
At the age of 13, she worked in her father’s shop, and said that she met the artist Van Gogh there. He seemed like an unpleasant guy with the smell of alcohol. At the age of 115, she starred in the film Vincent and Me, becoming the oldest actress in history.
The centenarian was married once, and outlived her husband, daughter and grandson. She has no heirs. She bequeathed to bury her along with photographs of her relatives.
She died of old age in a nursing home, where she independently decided to go to live.
In the last years of her life, the woman was of sound mind and good memory, but deprived of hearing and vision.
Kalman smoked until she was 117 and drank wine, ate excessive amounts of chocolate and had a positive attitude towards life. According to many, this, as well as good heredity, has become the secret to a long life.
When Jeanne Louise was 90 years old, a lawyer entered into an agreement with her, which obligated him to pay the woman 2,500 francs a month in return for her apartment after her death. At that time, this apartment was valued at 10 years of such payments. However, the woman lived for another 32 years, as a result, the lawyer’s widow paid for the contract, and they got the living space three times more expensive than its real market value.
After the death of Jeanne Louise Calment, French President Jacques Chirac called her the grandmother of every Frenchman.
No one has yet broken Kalman's record. Today, the oldest person still alive is Nabi Tajima from Japan. She is 117 years old in 2018.

The Life of Jeanne Louise Calment

The man who lived the longest on earth appeared in the family of Nicolas and Margaret Calment on February 21, 1875, when they were 37 years old. She lived all 122 years in the French city of Arles. The family belonged to the local bourgeoisie. His father was engaged in shipbuilding and was a member of the Arles council; his mother belonged to the Gilles family, who were millers.

Jeanne Louise had a brother and sister, Antoine and Marie. They died before Jeanne Louise appeared. She also had another brother, Francois, who lived to be 97 years old. Perhaps there were more children in the family; they also died before the birth of Jeanne Louise Kalman.

Louis Paget and Jean Gilles (aunt) became godsons for Kalman. It was from these people that her name was formed - Jeanne Louise.

The girl had a typical bourgeois childhood - she studied at primary and secondary schools, as well as at a boarding school.

In 1861 she married Fernand Nicolas Calment, who was her second cousin. The newlyweds' paternal grandfathers were siblings, and it is noteworthy that they were married to women who were each other's sisters.

The fruit of the union was the daughter Nicole Marie Yvonne Calment, who was born in 1898. In 1926, Yvonne married artilleryman Joseph Charles Frédéric Billot and in the same year gave birth to Jeanne Louise Calment's grandson, Frédéric.

In 1932, Yvonne, the daughter of Jeanne Louise, died of pneumonia. And in 1942, her husband Fernand died from cherry poisoning. After these events, the woman, together with her son-in-law Joseph, began raising her grandson Frederick. In 1963, Frederick died in a car accident, and at the end of the year his father also passed away. Jeanne Louise Kalman was left alone and without heirs.

When the woman was 110 years old, while cooking in the kitchen, he started a fire in the apartment. After this incident, she decided to move to a nursing home for care. And during these years, Kalman’s celebrity began - she began to arouse the interest of journalists and scientists, who came to visit her on each of her birthdays.

According to doctors, in the last years of her life the woman was sane, although she had lost her sight and hearing, and moved in a wheelchair after breaking her hip at the age of 115. She could solve math problems and recite poems she had learned as a child.

On August 4, 1997, Jeanne Louise Calment died of natural causes at the age of 122 years, 5 months and 14 days in a nursing home in Arles.

Lifestyle

The man who lived the longest on earth did not take care of his health. Kalman smoked until she was 117 years old, and, as she said, she gave up the habit only out of blindness, because she could not light a cigarette herself, and it was awkward to ask someone else. She smoked two cigarettes a day. The centenarian also ate a lot of chocolate—about a kilogram a week—and drank a significant amount of wine.

Kalman rode a bicycle before her centenary, played tennis and loved spending time in nature.

“The only wrinkle that I have is the one on which I sit” - the phrase of the world record holder for life expectancy has long become a catchphrase. Indeed, memories of Jeanne Kalman always bring a smile. And not without reason! After all, the main driver of her life has always been humor. How else can one explain the fact that the grandmother managed to cheat death for so long? The woman, who managed to outlive seventeen (17!!!) rulers of her state, died at the age of 122 years and 164 days with a clear mind and bright memory. Since the date of birth and death of the legendary lady was documented, she is considered the person with the longest life expectancy.

French centenarian.

A few words about fate Jeanne Kalman. An aristocrat by birth, a native of the city of Arles, was destined to be born in the second half of the 19th century (1875). Edison's light bulb is eight years younger than it. The witness to the construction of the Eiffel Tower was personally acquainted with Van Gogh. By the way, she did not speak very well of him: “He looked gloomy, was dirty and poorly dressed,” this is what a noble person said about the great artist in an interview dedicated to his 100th anniversary.

The woman, despite her advanced age, always remained a coquette. Her outfits were very sophisticated and stylish. She led an active lifestyle until her death. When the centenarian turned 85, she discovered a new hobby - fencing. On her centenary birthday, the lady amazed everyone by riding a bicycle.

Flirty lady.

She was able to give up cigarettes and the aperitif, which the record holder systematically consumed before dinner, at the age of 117. 2 years earlier, the young lady starred in a film, and at 121 she was invited to participate in a musical - to which the old lady unconditionally agreed. The long-liver never went on any diet; she ate whatever she wanted, but especially loved spicy foods and wine.

The super old woman was destined to see the death of her own husband, children and grandchildren. Since Jeanne had no heirs, she bequeathed everything to the lawyer Raffrey, but with the condition that the woman would receive an annuity from him every month until her death. Thus, it would take the lawyer 10 years to pay off the entire amount for the house. It seemed like a very good deal. After all, how much time does the old lady have left? But that was not the case! The 47-year-old lawyer made a huge mistake: he had to pay the money for thirty years, but was unable to receive Raffrey’s property - he died faster than the mega-old woman (at 77 years old). After which the obligations under the contract were transferred to the lawyer’s wife.

122 years and 164 days is the world record for life expectancy.

U Jeanne Kalman Health difficulties arose only in the last 7 years of her life. At 114 years old, the old woman fell unsuccessfully, breaking her hip. Naturally, such an injury is difficult to cure at this age. That is why it became difficult for the woman to move. In an interview, she revealed the secret of her longevity: “Probably the reason is that I never had to work.” And our heroine always avoided quarrels and conflicts, and looked at life with a smile. To the correspondent’s question, “I hope that we will see each other again...”, the lady replied: “How could it be otherwise? After all, you don’t look so bad yet!”