| Gebke Hinrichs Tjaden | |
| Centenarian |
Gebke Hinrichs Hussman-Tjaden (29 March 1829 – 13 May 1935) was a Dutch centenarian who was the oldest person in the Netherlands at the time of her death in 1935.
Biography[]
Gebke Hinrichs Tjaden was born in the village of Victorbur, present-day Germany on March 29, 1829. She spent her childhood in the city of Aurich, Germany. In the early 1860s, she moved with her husband Wilhelm Anton Hussman and children to Petten, the Netherlands. In the late 1860s or early 1870s, she moved to Groningen, where she would live the rest of her life.
In later life she would walk to the market downtown behind a converted pram (as a walker). She became the oldest person in the Netherlands on her 103rd birthday. She was well-known in the city of Groningen. Shortly before her 106th birthday, she fell ill, but recovered. Her 106th birthday on March 29, 1935 was a popular celebration, as the kids who lived on her street sung to her and city officials and the mayor of Groningen came to congratulate her. On her 106th birthday after recovering from her illness, she said, "I am starting to live again, I only turned six, I have thrown away the other hundred years." She died about a month and a half later.