CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- They say when you get older your voice weakens. Well, somebody never passed the memo on to Hester Ford.

• Hester Ford turned 114 years old on Wednesday
• Her family says she is the oldest living American
• She has 12 children, 68 grandchildren, 138 great grandchildren and 38 great-great grandchildren

Ford is accustomed to proving science wrong. She celebrated a birthday Wednesday most people will have trouble relating to. Her family says she turned 114 years old.

A few days ago, her family including 12 children, 68 grandchildren, 138 great grandchildren and 38 great-great grandchildren thought they were celebrating her 113th birthday. A look at Census data showed she may be older than they thought.

“That made her 114 and I'm astonished,” her great granddaughter Vanessa Hill said.

Hill says that makes her great-grandmother the oldest living American.

“She put God first. She put family second and her work ethic and making sure she could survive was the third thing,” Hill said.

Birth records are hard to come by, but her family believes she was born in 1904. She grew up on a farm in South Carolina.

At age 14, she had her first child. Years later she and her late husband moved to north Charlotte.

She may not talk or hear as well as she used to, but she reminds her family every day what strong really means.