The death of the oldest "unofficial" person in the world
The family of a 116-year-old, believed to be among the oldest in the world who survived the Spanish flu in 1918, announced his death, Saturday, in South Africa.
Freddy Blume, who was born on the eighth of May 1904, told «AFP» earlier this year, that «he lived this long, grace God».
According to the Guinness Book of Records, the oldest man in the world is currently the British Bob Wheaton (112 years), but the South African media described Bloom as the oldest in the world "unofficially".
The Spanish flu killed the entire Bloom family while he was still a teenager. But he survived and raised his wife Janet's three children as though they were his own and now has five grandchildren.
"Just two weeks ago, the grandfather was still chopping wood," family spokesman Andre Naidoo said. "He was a strong man full of pride." But within three days, he turned "from a big man to a small person," according to Naidoo.
Plum, who was born in the town of Adelaide in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, died at the Tigerberg Hospital in the Cape.
Naidoo confirmed that his death "was natural and not related to (Covid) at all."