A MEXICAN woman has become the oldest human to have ever lived after reaching the grand old age of 127 — but she lost her birth certificate four decades ago, it was claimed yesterday.

    Leandra Becerra Lumbreras was said to have been born Aug. 31, 1887. She was 27 when World War II broke out, and was already 82 when man first set foot on the moon.

    And the birthday girl’s secret to a long life is eating well, sleeping for days on end and never getting married, according to her family.

    Lumbreras, from the western Mexican city of Zapopan, has already buried her five children and several of her 20 grandchildren — the last died in 2013 aged 90.

    She also has 73 great-grandchildren and 55 great-great-grandchildren. Mexican authorities are now trying to provide a new birth certificate after she lost the original 40 years ago while moving house.

    Grandaughter Miriam Alvear, 43, told Mexico’s El Horizonte newspaper that although she is now deaf and suffering from cataracts, Lumbreras still often entertains her family with stories from a time long confined to history books.

    Her only possessions help her remember years gone by — an old silver spoon made in 1847, a pair of gold earrings, a ring and an old pocket watch engraved with a steam train.

    Lumbreras is 12 years older than Japan’s Misao Okawa, currently the oldest documented living person in the world, according to Guinness World Records.

    (SD-Agencies)