LAVAL, QUE.—What could Cicilia Laurent possibly want for her 120th birthday?

A woman who has lived in three centuries, from before the discovery of human flight to Haiti’s devastating earthquake in the new millennium.

To mark her birth on Jan. 31, 1896 — something that, if verified, would make her the second-oldest person ever — Madame Laurent would like nothing more than to meet Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“Will he come see me?” she asked last weekend. “I would be so happy. Before I die I would be so happy to meet him. I’m waiting and you can let me know if it’s going to happen.”

If the Liberal leader’s audience is anything like the Star’s recent visit with her, she will offer Trudeau, his wife and children lots of prayers for their health and wealth. He will also undoubtedly be invited to recite scripture, following Laurent’s devout evangelical lead.

She will hold his hands, touch his face, laugh and share her contagious optimism in a tough-to-decipher Haitian Créole, translated into French by one of her children or grandchildren.

But one special request is certain. The woman who could pass for the matriarch of humanity would like special permission for her beloved grandsons in Haiti, Patrick and Joel, to come see her in Canada, possibly for the last time.

“You don’t know how important they are for her,” says Laurent’s grandson, Ron Cherri.

It is an achingly real wish in Laurent’s dwindling world. One in which it is becoming harder to hear, harder to see and harder to recall what happened 10 years ago, 30 years ago or even a century ago.

The other ache is in her legs. After nearly six years in the country, they still flare up in the frigid winters, she said.

“I love Canada but it’s the cold that I don’t like. It’s a great country.”

Laval, just north of Montreal, has been home for Laurent since shortly after the deadly 2010 earthquake In Haiti. All around her, she recalled, houses crumbled and were flattened. Many neighbours and friends died.

“All around me people were trapped under the rubble, but nothing happened to me. Still, I lost everything. All that I had was broken and crushed,” she said.

The natural disaster sparked a run on embassies in Port-au-Prince, including that of Canada, which has one of the world’s largest populations of Haitian expatriates. Teams of civil servants from the immigration and foreign affairs ministries arrived to help evacuate Canadian citizens, fast-track the adoption of Haitian orphans, and process the immigration applications of Haitians, like Laurent, with family members in Canada.

Retired visa officer Bill Bottomley was among those processing the applications and he clearly remembers the woman who would have been nearly 114 at the time.

“Certain ones stick out more than others,” he said. “Someone who’s that age tends to stick out.”

Bottomley and his colleagues had three criteria for those seeking passage out of Haiti: they had to verify the person’s identity, their relationship to their sponsor and their health status. In other words, officials had to be confident about who the person was and ensure they would not arrive on Canadian soil only to be a drain on the country’s health system.

“The person didn’t get the visa if we were not satisfied about who they were. And we didn’t cut corners just because there was an earthquake,” he said.

So who is Cicilia Laurent? According to a 2005 document provided to the Star that is known as a late declaration of birth, she was born 120 years ago on Jan. 31 to Erzulie Laurent in the village of Pestel, about 300 km west of Port-au-Prince. Issued by the Haitian government when an original birth certificate is not available or does not exist, the document is based on the sworn testimony of one individual that can be backed by two witnesses.

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Laurent now has trouble discerning how long ago things happened, but said some of her earliest memories are of making clothing and dolls.

“I still make them to this day,” she said. “You just have to bring me some cotton and I can continue to make them.”

Later in life, Laurent said she made a living selling in Port-au-Prince’s markets.

“I sold all that I could find. I sold sugar and flour. All that I could find I resold,” she said.

“Right up until today I make clothing. I don’t see well enough to thread the needle, but I make little purses. Bring me some fabric and I’ll make a little purse for you.”

Cherri, her grandson, said Laurent gave birth to 12 children, six of whom survived childbirth. Three are still alive. Her eldest daughter, from a first marriage, died a few years ago at the age of about 96, Cherri said.

She says her secret is keeping an even keel, eating well and having faith in God.

“I don’t argue with anyone. I never get angry. I never fight. And I’m a Christian, so if someone is sick I pray for them, for the illness to get out of them so that person gets better,” she said.

The Haitian government accepted that Laurent is the age she says she is and so has the Canadian government, which issued her permanent residency in Canada stating that she was born in 1896.

Since her arrival in this country, she’s been receiving annual birthday wishes from the likes of former prime minister Stephen Harper, Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard, Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre, Governor General David Johnston and Queen Elizabeth, who at the age of 89 is just a pup compared to this lady from Laval.

But the proof of her extraordinary birth date is not solid enough for her to assume her title as the world’s oldest living person, a crown currently worn by New York’s Susannah Mushatt Jones, who has been verified by the Guinness World Records as being born on July 6, 1899, making her 116 years old.

Without solid proof, there is also little chance she will get the recognition that would be coming to her as she closes in on the oldest-ever person to have lived, France’s Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122 years and 164 days.

Correction - January 19, 2015: This article was edited from a previous version that misspelled Jeanne Calment's surname.

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