World’s shortest man: Edward is 28 and just 27 Inches tall.

World’s shortest man: Edward is 28 and just 27 Inches tall.

mangaloretoday.com/ Daily Mail

Edward Hernandez is 28, and his dream is to own a country farm, have a girlfriend, and drive a Jeep.

It’s not a huge dream, but for Edward, who lives in one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Colombia’s capital city of Bogota, relies on his parents for everything, and stands at just 27 inches tall, it might as well involve building a castle made of diamonds on the moon.

Until 2009, Edward and his family lived in relative obscurity. He had been angry and depressed as a child when he didn’t grow while the other children or his siblings did, but he was beginning to accept his fate.

 

World’s shortest man: Edward Hernandez held the record for just six short weeks

 

At home: Edward says he doesn’t go outside very often, because strangers tend to pick him up and ask lots of questions

He mostly stayed indoors to avoid the constant battle of people picking him up and ’kids asking silly questions’, but he and his family were content running his mother Noami’s textile business above their house.

Their only fear was whether or not they mollycoddled him, and whether he would ever be able to cope alone if he needed his younger brothers’ help even to go to the bathroom.

Indeed, as one said: ’He can’t go around by himself. He’d go missing. People pick him up as if he’s a toy. And then, oof! we’ve lost Edward.’

But then, in 2010, He Pingping, the world’s smallest man, died in China, and the Guinness World Records people came calling.

They measured him, and made him the new record-holder. Overnight, Edward became a superstar, hoisted onto the shoulders of the world’s media and bounced into the spotlight.

’I was so happy I almost cried,’ he said. ’I was the shortest man in the world. The only one smaller than all the other kids.’

 

The 27-inch man: Edward is considered the baby of the family, despite having several younger siblings

 

 

A keen dancer, he was thrust onto Colombian TV wearing sparkly little suits and shimmied his way to stardom. He appeared on national chat shows and was paid well for his appearances.

He was given free medical care and operations for the myriad complaints he’d had since birth, sometimes in exchange for publicity and campaign backing. He even met the Colombian president at his palace.

Sensing his dreams inching closer, Edward visited a Jeep dealership to test out some models, telling the salesmen he would return to buy one once more money flooded in.

But, as Marco Frigatti, of Guinness World Records explained: ’We knew that the reign of Edward, as the shortest man, could be very short.’