Forty Foot House Plant

I'm visiting my Aunt Theresa & Uncle Jon in Pennsylvania.  I walked in and was shocked to see a forty foot house plant extending from one side of the room to the other.  The story goes that my uncle got the plant from his mother when he was 7.  He has taken it every where he's moved since even college! The plant had only one leaf when he got it, and 20 years later it only had five leaves.  Seventeen years after that, the plant looks like this!