April 21, 2008
A 109-year-old Macedonian woman is getting her first passport after it took decades for authorities to check how old she was.
Maria Kostova from the town of Shtip was born on February 7 1898 and no birth certificate was issued to her at the time.
Local authorities lost their records of her birth and when she asked for a passport more than 20 years ago, passport authorities said they would have to look for records of her birth.
She never heard back from them but now local passport authorities said archive documents dating back to the end of the 19th century were recently found and they could confirm her date of birth.
They already presented her with the passport as a present for her 110th birthday.
