The Age Of Longevity
January 25th, 2007 by Anne
Publication: Courant.com
Author: Jim Farrell
Date: 25 January, 2007
EAST HARTFORD — When 114-year-old Emma Faust Tillman was told Wednesday that the death of a man from Puerto Rico earlier in the day made her the oldest person in the world, she didn’t respond.
“She’s gotten so she doesn’t care much anymore,” said Emma’s daughter, Marjorie Tillman, who delivered the news. “But I feel blessed - very blessed to have a mother like her.”
Emma Tillman, who was born Nov. 22, 1892, to former slaves in North Carolina, spent most of her landmark day sleeping in her room at the Riverside Health and Rehabilitation Center.
In mid-afternoon, though, she was taken in her wheelchair to a wide hallway near the lobby, where family members surrounded her and proudly talked about her life and her legacy.
“She’s doing good,” said John B. Stewart, the former Hartford fire chief, as he handed out copies of clippings and photographs of his great aunt - including one of Emma at age 20.
Stewart, a self-described family historian, also had a copy of a page from the Guinness World Records that he has been saving since August.
Tillman was listed as the sixth oldest person in the world then, but Stewart has marked tiny X’s in the margin as those above her passed away.
A woman from Ecuador. Another woman from France. Then Lizzie Bolden of Tennessee in December and Julie Winnefred Bertrand of Quebec last week.
“It seems like the winter months took their toll,” said Stewart, who had not yet put an X next to 115-year-old Emiliano Mercado Del Toro, whose death elevated Tillman to No. 1 on lists of validated “supercentenarians” maintained by the Gerontology Research Group in Los Angeles and other organizations.
Family members say they worry about Tillman’s health, noting that a few weeks ago she was unable to eat on her own and needed intravenous infusions.
But Marjorie, 81, said her mother was recently able to eat again.
“Corn on the cob - all by herself,” Marjorie said.
Marjorie said her mother’s love of corn dates to her days growing up on a farm in Glastonbury. The Faust family moved to town in 1895 and Emma - one of 23 children - graduated from Glastonbury High School in 1909.
A longtime resident of Hartford and a widow for 70 years, Tillman has been at Riverside for about four years.
“It’s an honor for us,” said Karen Chadderton, an administrator at the center. “The other residents are not used to all the activity, but it’s something some of them get excited about.”
Stewart said he is pleased by the attention Tillman is receiving but aware that her latest round of celebrity is tied directly to another family’s loss.
Stewart said he keeps in touch with Guinness officials and was told recently that Del Toro has been ill.
“You never know,” Stewart said after Tillman had been taken back upstairs. “The next time there’s a crowd like this, she may be in heaven
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