Emma Morano’s singular achievement in life may have been perseverance.
She lived for 117 years, crediting her longevity to raw eggs and her lack of a husband.
She died on April 15, 2017
I love this woman even, if I never met her. I have a picture in my office because she reminds me of many of my fondest childhood memories in Italy.
The last time Emma Morano left her apartment, she was 102 years old. Fame came late in life — after she hit 110., definitely an LOL moment !!! Last year, she was made famous as being the oldest person on earth. She had fans the world over., me being one of them . The mayor of her Italian town thanked her for putting it on the map.
Ms. Morano, the last person documented as being born in the 1800s, died peacefully on April 15. She was 117 years, 137 days, 16 hours and some minutes old.
The few worldly possessions she left behind, accumulated over the course of more decades than you or I will probably live, didn’t take up much space in the tiny two-room church-owned apartment where she spent the last 27 years of her life.
Those of us consumed by consumerism may have difficulty understanding Ms. Morano.
“We have too many things, too many distractions, too many items offered to us, too many messages, and a person like Emma struggles to understand such complexities.
Her “simplicity is sculptural” — and out of step with modernity, was a statement I read in article in print.
Next to her bed, Ms. Morano had hung photos of her parents and siblings — five sisters and three brothers — along with some religious images. Inside the drawer of her night table was a supermarket-aisle anti-aging cream that she had applied every evening before going to sleep. We need to keep that beautiful Italian skin in check , even when we ascend into heaven.
I read that due to health reasons, Emma Morano moved as a child to Verbania, a small town on Lake Maggiore, in Piedmont. She is so cute, and said,
“The doctor told me to change air, and I’m still here.”
Her father, Giovanni, worked in a foundry in Villadossola, a nearby town. Eventually, he went blind. Her mother, Matilde, made slippers by layering fabrics and cutting out a shoe shape. I had my uncle’s mom make these “le Chiogge” for me when I was young and absolutely cherished them and the fond memories that went Nenna Pappetta e Nonno Quintino . As in any Italian family, her family instilled strength of character in Emma and her siblings.
As a young girl, she would sneak out at night to go dancing with her sisters, her nieces said.
She recollected by saying, “My sisters and I loved to dance and we’d run away to the dance hall and then our mother would come looking for us with a birch stick.” Or also known as La Scopa or I Bastone !!
Many Historians have studied Emma Morone’s longevity , its been investigated, by researchers and fans. Could the lake’s mild climate be a factor? Or the three raw eggs she ate every day for nearly a century Or an unfortunate marriage and separation in 1938 that made her never contemplate marriage again? Trust me many of us can relate. It really does add decades to your life . Her niece had recalled her stories and went to state,
“Emma did not put up with the humiliation of being subservient to a man,”
“I didn’t want to be dominated by anyone.”
She was devout, wearing her rosaries for decades, though she did not wear them recently because her nieces, her principal caretakers, were afraid she might choke on them. She hung the rosaries next to her bed, near a photo of her only child, a son who lived from January to August 1937.
That photograph was buried with her, according to her wishes
Emma worked until she was 75, proud that she could pay for whatever she owned. After her separation from her husband, she had a bedroom set custom-made by a local furniture maker.
“She always said, ‘I paid for it; I had it made,” Ms. Santoni said.
Emma cooked for herself until a few years ago.
She cooked for herself until she was 112, usually pasta to which she added raw ground beef. Until she was 115, she did not have live-in caregivers, and she laid out a place setting for herself at her small kitchen table at every meal.
“She was very house-proud,” recounts her niece.
When visitors brought children to see Emma at her previous home, she would put newspapers on the floor so their feet wouldn’t dirty it. I have to admit, it is an Italina trait I do have slippers for any one who comes to visit.
When she turned 110, every sunrise increased her fame. Certificates acknowledging her celebrity multiplied. She was honored by a host of organizations, Italian presidents and schoolchildren. The local gas company even gave her a certificate for being a loyal customer.
She was always polite and patient, Ms. Santoni said, “but after a while, she would turn to me and say in dialect, ‘What shall we eat”
Emma was buried in the local cemetery, in the family tomb.
At the funeral, Verbania’s mayor, Silvia Marchionini, thanked her for making the town famous. “We are enormously grateful,” Ms. Marchionini said.
“We don’t know if it’s true that living on the lake helps you live longer — certainly it’s nice to believe this,” she said. “Verbania thanks you. We are proud.”