Anderson is the world's oldest singleton twin, with her twin brother, Abel (1899-1900), who died at 1 year of age. Anderson has lived at the Avera Marshall Morningside Heights Care Center in Marshall, Minnesota since 2005, and still reads the newspapers and the Bible in both English and Swedish. She was reported to once read to her family in Swedish, and translate it almost at once into English. Despite having hearing difficulties, she still looks forward to every day. Born as Ruth Peterson on the Balaton farm in 1899, she learned English when she went to school. After secretarial school in Mankato, she was an office worker in Minneapolis for six years before returning home when her father became ill. At age 60, she married her (widowed) brother-in-law, in a marriage that lasted until his death at 90. A report mentioning her notes that the average life expectancy in the US is 78 years, with one in 6,000 living to be more than 100 years old and one in 7,000,000 living to be 110.
Bernice Madigan, who was sent to hospital in 2008 and recovered relatively quickly despite being sent home with hospice care, still keeps her mind active with puzzles and word games and continues to play the piano.
Madigan, who was generally healthy throughout life, never had children. On 1 July 2010, a video was made of Madigan as a pre-111th-birthday video. She managed to appear that time despite having recently fallen ill.
Elsie Ward, being a British, is still largely anonymous. She is, however, known to be the third-oldest living British following the 3 September 2010 death of Annie Turnbull, as well as the 51st oldest British on record.
All three women are currently the 43rd oldest living people, following the recent removal of several dead Japanese from higher up on the list (considering that September is the month where the bulk of Japanese supercentenarian updates come from).
29 September 2010: Elsie Ward has died. Her death on 21 September 2010 means she finishes her life at 111 years, 59 days old.