Hava Rexha

Who was Hava Rexha?

Hava Rexha was said to be the oldest woman in Albania, and perhaps the oldest living person in the world, when she died at the claimed age of 123. Those claiming that she was born in 1880 did not send to the Guinness World Records sufficient documentation to prove her age before she died. One article claimed her birth in 1880 was recorded in 1946, which is long past the margin of acceptable proof.

Rexha was forced to marry at age 14 to a man who was aged about 60, a fact that she still resented and said that she did not love him. She was however buried next to his grave when she died. She had six children, though four died in childhood. She was buried next to her husband's grave in a ceremony attended by a crowd of hundreds of people, as well as her only surviving daughter, Vule.