MACHANG: Esah Jusoh can easily claim to be the oldest living person in the country, if no one else exceeds her age of 115.
Esah, from Kampung Jakar here, celebrated her 115th birthday on Oct 29. Her MyKad states that she was born on that date in 1899.
Her youngest daughter, Tuan Bidah Tuan Muda, 65, said her mother was healthy except for poor hearing and loss of strength.
“My mother loves vegetables and is not choosy about her food. Maybe because of that, she is still well despite her age,” she said.
Tuan Bidah said her mother was hard working as she planted padi and tapped rubber as a source of income for the family when she was younger.
“When she was 100, she could still walk around the village with a cane to meet neighbours.”
However, the daughter said Esah had been confined to the house for the past three months as she was too frail to walk.
Esah’s granddaughter, Nik Zainab Nik Soh, 32, said if all her
grandmother’s descendants gathered together under one roof, there could easily be more than 500 people.
“My grandmother’s descendants have reached the fifth generation,” said Nik Zainab, who has lived with her grandmother since young.
She said Esah had been married three times and had five children.
Nik Zainab said she used to regularly take her grandmother on a wheelchair to get fresh air and enjoy the scenery of padi fields in the late afternoon.
However, she said the wheelchair was now broken and it was difficult to take Esah around the village.