While 116-year-old Maria Branyas of Spain is the oldest living woman in the world, many should know that South African 128-year-old Johanna Mazibuko held that title about four months ago.

While the Guinness World Records never documented her as the world’s oldest woman, Mazibuko’s documentation proved it.

According to News24, Mazibuko came into the world on May 11, 1894, meaning she lived through two world wars, racial discrimination and British colonialism. 

She was the first of 12 children, living on a farm in Ottosdal. While she lived a long life, she and her siblings never received an education. Therefore they didn’t know how to write or read.

And although she never remembered the age she got married, she remembered marrying an elderly widower, Stawana Mazibuko.

“I was married to an older man. His first wife had died. He was an independent man. He had a horse carriage and cows. I would milk the cows and make butter to sell. That man treated me very well and made me forget about my life before him. I did not want for anything.”

She would go on to have seven children who also never went to school because they grew up on a farm.

She would outlive five of her children before dying on March 3, 2023, two months before her birthday.

Mazibuko’s hired caregiver and daughter-in-law, Thandiwe Wesinyana, noticed she wasn’t feeling well and took her to the hospital. 

“Ouma [Mazibuko] wasn’t feeling well, so I took her to the hospital on Feb. 14. At the hospital, the left side of her body was numb, and doctors said it might be a stroke. She was given high blood medication and painkillers, then discharged on 28 February.”

Three days after being home, the 128-year-old died. While Mazibuko never understood why or how she lived for as long as she did, she said her diet comprised fresh milk and wild spinach in her childhood. Before her death, she indulged in “modern food.”