Former radio maker Linda Lilly is most certainly not 123, despite the IRD telling her they have January 1900 listed as her date of birth. Photo: Stuff / Vanessa Laurie
Linda Lilly never thought she'd make old bones, but then she called Inland Revenue and learnt she might just be the oldest person to have ever lived.
The New Plymouth woman's journey towards the record books began innocuously enough, with a call to the tax department to change her address.
"I laughed when they asked for my birthdate," the 79-year-old said.
"But I gave it to them and they said 'that is not what we have here'. The tone they used was that I was wrong. But I said 'I think I know what date I was born, what date have you got?'"
The date they had was January 1900, which would make her 123 years and 185 days old (give or take), easily the oldest person to have ever lived.
The current verified oldest person to have ever lived was French woman Jeanne Calment, who survived to the age of 122 years and 164 days, which Lilly knew because she had Googled it on her husband's cellphone.
Lilly said she suggested to the person on the phone she could not possibly be that old, and they should check with the Opunake Cottage Hospital where she was born.
"I said, 'I wouldn't be talking to you now, I would be dead'."
Even if she was speaking from beyond the grave, Lilly said she was told there was no way the date of birth could be changed over the phone and she would have to visit the local IRD office with her driver's licence or birth certificate.
Unfortunately Lilly didn't know where her birth certificate was, and she pointed out she probably shouldn't have been driving at her "age".
She also had mobility issues and was unable to stand or walk for more than five minutes at a time, which would make a visit to the IRD office extremely challenging.
All she wanted was for the age issue to be resolved without her having to leave her house.
Linda Lilly says she was born at Opunake Cottage Hospital in 1944. Photo: Stuff / Vanessa Laurie
And that was just what happened. Following questions put to the IRD by the Taranaki Daily News on Monday afternoon, representatives of the IRD visited Lilly at home on Tuesday to sort out the date of birth issue.
"Yes, it's just about sorted," she said. "Now I'm telling them my life story. Not as much as I told you."
A spokesperson for the IRD said January 1900 was a default date-of-birth used on "rare occasions" if the person's date of birth was missing from a customer's information.
They said there were a number of ways the IRD could assist people unable to come to an office easily, including, where practical, having one of their people visit.
"It would be most unfortunate if a customer has been given any other impression," the spokesperson said.
This wasn't the first bureaucratic mix-up Lilly has dealt with.
Her marriage certificate had her profession listed as a radio announcer which, despite a lineage she said connected her to journalist and newsreader Wendy Petrie, she most certainly wasn't.
"I was a radio maker at the Philips factory in Naenae," she said.
Lilly said she had lived through breast cancer, tuberculosis and suffered intense needle phobia, so she never expected to live beyond 100 and definitely not to 123.
"Although it would be newsworthy to be the oldest living person on the planet, it doesn't give me any advantage," she said.
This story was first published by Stuff.