'Tired of living' woman celebrates 116th birthday

A woman believed to be the oldest in the world celebrated her 116th birthday today in the former Soviet republic of Belarus.

“I’ll drink to my own health with pleasure,” said Hanna Barysevich, a former farm worker who lives in a house outside the capital Minsk.

“I’m tired of living already, but God still hasn’t collected me,” she said with a smile.

Barysevich was born on May 5, 1888, according to her passport. Her parents were poor, landless peasants.

“From my early childhood, I didn’t know anything but physical labour,” said Barysevich, who never learned to read or write. She worked on a collective farm until she was 95, then moved to the house she shares with her 78-year-old daughter Nina.

Barysevich lived through the Bolshevik Revolution, two world wars and the collapse of the Soviet Union. The worst period for her was the reign of dictator Josef Stalin.

Her husband Ippolit was declared an “enemy of the people” for allegedly harming the collective farm, arrested and taken to Siberia. He was never heard from again.

She raised her three children on her own, including throughout the Second World War, when she used to take her family to the woods outside the village to hide from the Nazis.

“A lot of men courted me but I preferred to live on my own,” she said.

Today, Barysevich moves with difficulty but unaided. She complains of occasional headaches and worsening vision ”but nothing else bothers me.”

She attributes her longevity to genes. Her paternal grandmother was 113 when she died. As to diet, Barysevich prefers simple village food - home-made sausages, pork fat, milk and bread.

“Throughout my long life, I understood that it isn’t worth it to get upset and take everything too close to the heart,” Barysevich said.

For her birthday, she hoped for a raise in her monthly pension, equal to about €36.90, and a chance to go to a Catholic church for confession.

Last month, the Guinness Book of Records recognised a 114-year-old Puerto Rican as the world’s oldest living woman. Barysevich said she had never thought of applying for the distinction.