Supercentenarian Profile

Elizabeth Philippina van Boven-Smaal

Born:

1915-01-05

Rotterdam, South Holland

Netherlands

Current Residence:

Capelle aan den IJssel, South Holland

Netherlands

✔ Age Certified by LongeviQuest

Elizabeth Philippina van Boven-Smaal is a Dutch supercentenarian and the nation’s oldest living woman.

BIOGRAPHY

Elizabeth Philippina van Boven-Smaal was born in the Overschie district of Rotterdam, South Holland, Netherlands on 5 January 1915. She had nine siblings, and as the eldest daughter in the family, she took on a great deal of housework.

She married in 1938 and gave birth to her first child, a son, in 1942. Tragically, he died in 1945. During World War II, she experienced two bombing raids, which led the family to flee to Groningen. In 1947, she had her second and last child. In 1968, the family moved to The Hague. Her husband passed away in 1980. In 2002, at the age of 87, she remarried an old school friend who lived in Capelle.

On her 109th birthday, Acting Mayor Cor Lamers was unable to visit due to illness but made the visit a week later, on January 12. For her 110th birthday, she was visited by Mayor Joost Manusama, and together they raised a celebratory toast.

Onn her 111th birthday, her son, Wim van Boven, reported that she was in good health and received regular medical checkups. She was slightly deaf and wore two hearing aids, yet she had not seen a doctor for 37 years. She only stopped eating meat after meeting her second husband.