96-Year-Old Dad World's Oldest?
A 96-year-old Indian man has become a father for the second time, and has possibly set the world's record for parenting. This is the second child for Ramjit Raghav and his 54-year-old wife Shakuntala.
"What can I do? This is all God's wish. He wanted me to have another son," he said, according to the Daily.
"It's good that I have another son now. Even if one of them dies, God forbid, I will have someone to carry on my family name," Raghav explained.
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"My neighbors are jealous and they keep asking me for my secret, but all I tell them is that it is God's will." Raghav also cites a diet full of almonds, butter, and milk as a secret to his successful procreation.
The two met 22 years ago, after he had already been a widower for 25 years. When Raghav asked the younger woman into his home she readily accepted and as Raghav said, "I took her under my wing and taught her some yoga and we fell in love."
"It doesn't matter how old he is, I love him and I care for him dearly, even though he shouts at me sometimes. He doesn't seem old to me… and he makes a wonderful father," Shakuntala said.
Of course, the Bible is full of older parents such as Sarah and Abraham, who became the parents of a son when they were both in their 90s. When told she would bear a child, Sarah reportedly laughed, much like the doctors in the hospital did when told that Raghav was the father of baby Ranjit.
Shakuntala is not the world's oldest mother, though. That honor goes to Omkari Panwar, who gave birth to twins. It took a great deal of faith and money for the honor of having the children.
"At last we have a son and heir. We prayed to God, went to saints and visited religious places to pray for an heir. We kept no stone unturned and God has rewarded us. I can die a happy man and a proud father," Charan Singh Panwar, 77, told the press.
