The longest living person in Peru, Filomena Taipe Mendoza, passed away at the venerable age of 117. Taipe lived through three centuries before passing away in her modest Andean home over the weekend.

The Peruvian government’s Pension 65 program, run by the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion (Midis), announced Taipe had passed away on Twitter. She died on Sunday, April 5 at 2 p.m.

According to a press release from Pension 65, Taipe was born in 1897 in the small town of Pucuto in the Peruvian department of Huancavelica, located in the Andean mountain range. Remembered as “la abuelita de Huancavelica” (Huancavelica’s grandma), Taipe was a revered local figure who lived alone in a modest adobe home.

Taipe remembered the 1920s construction of the railroad connecting Huancayo with Huancavelica and said her father worked on the project. A widow at a young age, she raised her nine children by herself and remained in contact with three of them.

When asked what her secret for long life was, Taipe said she never ate any processed foods or drank any sodas. She ate beef, goat cheese, as well as a slew of Andean tubers, including Peru’s vast array of potatoes, oca and mashua.

Pension 65, a government program that provides money to seniors over the age of 65, started helping Taipe last year. It took so long for the government to help Taipe because she did not have any form of government documentation.

On March of 2014, after reciving her government-issued identification card, Taipe began receiving government assistance.

Her story has been recorded by Pension 65’s “Vidas” project, which documents the lives of some of Peru’s oldest people.

During her interview, Taipe recollected the hardships of living off the land and her struggle to raise her children, six of which died. However, her community has helped her throughout.

"Everyone greets me with affection, they respect me and always help me when they see me tired,” Taipe remembered. “Honestly, there is always someone with me, big or small, ready to help.”

Watch a part of Filomena’s story in the Spanish-language video.