One Florida woman is celebrating a very special birthday and
a huge milestone as she is America’s oldest-living leap year baby. Born on February 29, 1916, Daisy Belle Ward celebrated
her milestone birthday this past weekend in Sunrise with a four-day long
birthday bash complete with an 80-piece marching band that she danced along
with,CBS News reported.
The party was a celebration of her 100 years of life, or her
25th birthday according to the calendar.
Sporting her Sunday’s best, Ward was honored by city
officials, saw a gospel performance led by recording artist Dottie Peoples and
attended an all-white gala where she was presented with the Centennial
Certificate issued by President Barack Obama, CNN reported. Her son, Clinton
Ward, said the family is happy the remarkably healthy woman reached age 100.
‘The idea about it is this — we’re happy that she reached
it. I’m 81 years old, and I would like to reach 100, but I would like to be in
the state of mind just like she is,’ he told CNN.
Clinton Ward told CNN that leading up to the big
celebration, his mother ‘was excited about it and every time we’d come to
[visit her] she’d think it was the day.’
The mother-of-four previously worked as a care giver living
in New York City in the 1930s before moving to Florida, according to a website
created by her family to celebrate her birthday. The Rocky Ford, Georgia native
currently lives in an assisted living facility, but still enjoys living a very
exciting life as she still shows her independence and refers to herself as ‘the
boss’.
Reaching the age of 100 in her family isn’t new, as her
older sister, Harriet, lived to celebrate her 102 birthday. Her family has submitted paperwork to have
her entered into the Guinness Book of World Records. There is no Guinness title holder for the
oldest living leap year baby, according to CNN.
Every four years an extra day is added to the end of February and there
are almost five million leap day babies in the world, CNN reported. The chances
of a person being born on leap day are one in 1,461.
Source: Daily Mail