The Last Person Who Was Born in the 1800s Passed Away

The once oldest living person, Emma Morano of Italy, has passed away. Morano lived from November 29, 1899, to April 15, 2017, making her 117 years, 137 days, 16 hours old before her death.The New York Times writes that she was the last person to be alive who was born in the 1800s.

Morano worked until she was 75-years-old and spent her final years in a two-bedroom church-owned apartment where she didn’t require live-in nurses until age 115. She wore her rosary up until her doctor and family deemed it unsafe to keep wearing.

Morano only had one child, but sadly, he only lived for eight months. Still, she kept a photo of him beside her bed and requested to be buried with it in her family’s beautiful tomb in the local cemetery of Verbania, Italy.

CNN reports that Morano attributed a “diet of raw eggs and cookies” and leaving her abusive marriage in 1938 where she felt “dominated” by her husband as the reasons why she was able to live such a long life.

Her niece Rosemarie Santoni said that Morano often received visitors. Santoni told the New York Times, “She was always polite and patient…but after a while, she would turn to me and say in dialect, ‘Are they ever going to leave?’” It sounds like Morano was an inspirational, and relatable, woman.