Okawa, who was staying in a nursing home, died of heart failure. Born in Osaka on March 5, 1898, Okawa has seen the turn of two centuries, and was recognized as the oldest living person by the Guinness World Records in 2013. To put things in perspective, Okawa’s birth is closer to the Battle of Waterloo and Napoleon, than it is to the Gulf War. She was born the year the United States annexed the Hawaiian islands, and Pepsi was launched as Pepsi-Cola. She was born on the same day as Zhou Enlai, the first Premier of the People’s Republic of China, who passed away 40 years ago.
The nursing home said that Okawa lost her appetite about 10 days ago, and passed away in the presence of her grandson and nursing home officials. Tomohiro Okada, an official at her Osaka nursing home said, “She went so peacefully, as if she had just fallen asleep. We miss her a lot.”
Okawa was the daughter of a kimono maker and helped with her family’s clothing business until she married. She said at her birthday celebrations last month that her life had seemed to pass by quite quickly. She married her husband, Yukio, in 1919, and had three children — two daughters and a son. Her husband passed away in 1931, almost an entire lifetime ago! She has also outlived one of her kids, and is survived by two children, both in their 90s, four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.