108-year-old Turkish woman proves age is just a number

When the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a halt and confined many of us to isolation, fearing for our lives, there was a woman more than a hundred years old who refused to let the deadly disease put down her spirits.

Gulten Saruhan, a 108-year-old woman who lives in Türkiye's Rize province, caught COVID-19 three years ago. It was a serious case, but doctors were amazed when she literally rolled out of the hospital without needing any intensive care.

"The doctors were all surprised. There is nothing wrong with my mother's body," Sunay Balikci, her daughter, told Ihlas News Agency. Saruhan even demanded a wheelchair so she could wander around the village by herself.

Saruhan, who has no serious illnesses and uses no medication these days, amazes everyone around her with her cheerful disposition as she casually talks about her life's struggles, said Balikci, who herself is 65 years old.

As a young girl, Saruhan moved from Erzurum to Rize after her mother passed away and was adopted by a family. She spent many years with them before marrying and having four children of her own.

“I was deeply loved by everyone and have come this far despite growing up as an orphan. I endured a lot of hunger when I was young. I never knew my mother. I only had my father."

"After my mother passed away, my father brought me to the city on his back. At night, we would stay in inns, and along the way, he would ask for bread from others," Saruhan said.

A family eventually took them in and became Saruhan's guardians. "But they were not like my own parents. I grew up as an orphan," she recalled.

Saruhan likes to spend her free time knitting socks in the comfort of her bed.