On May 12, Emma Martina Luigia Morano-Martinuzzi from Verbania in Italy officially became the world's oldest living person after American woman (and former old person crown holder) Susannah Mushatt Jones passed away.
At 116 years and 183 days old, Morano has lived over twice the life expectancy of people in Somalia and Mali; survived two World Wars including two incarnations of a fascist Italy and also outlived all seven of her younger siblings, her husband and even her child.
In an interview with the New York Times, Morano has accredited her amazing achievement to a daily routine she has had since her twenties – eating three eggs a day (two raw, one cooked). This diet was prescribed to her after she was diagnosed with anaemia.
(According to the Times, if Morano is to be taken at her word, this would mean she has eaten more than 100,000 eggs in her lifetime.)
She also enjoys a daily nip of homemade brandy. Oh, and being single helps too apparently. Sorry lovebirds.
Something that both Morano and her predecessor Jones had in common was spending the majority of their life alone.
While Morano was married when she was younger, the couple weren't happy and quickly separated. Despite there being no shortage of suitors throughout her life, Morano much preferred being on her own because she, and we quote, "didn't want to be dominated by anyone".
Preach it, sister.
And if you think age may have changed her mind, you're greatly mistaken. Morano has maintained her independence to this day – she still lives alone in her own home (a neighbour checks in now and then) where she tends to her garden and eats her eggs.
But what makes Morano's position as the current world's oldest person so unique is that she is also the last person to have lived in the 1800s. Born on November 18, 1899, Morano is also one of three women left to have been alive in the 19th century. (The other two are Violet Brown from Jamaica and Nabi Tajima from Japan.)
If that's not enough to give you a scope of the sheer length of time that Morano has walked the earth, then thinking about some of the historical events she has lived through will really give you an idea of just how much has happened in the world during her single lifetime.
For example, much like the Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey, Morano lived during a time before electricity was available in the household home. She was a 12-year-old girl when the Titanic sank (she could have been Rose's younger sister) and she was already old at 70 when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.
But there's a dark side to being named the world's oldest living person, too.
According to statistics blog fivethirtyeight, the average tenure of being the world's official oldest person is no more than a year… so in way, along with the crown comes the certainty of death. In 2007, North Carolina’s Emma Tillman died four days after her incumbency began.
This may sound grim, but it's also a reality that even the longest living person will ultimately have their final day.
But at least Morano can go out knowing that she had a good innings and kept the local poultry farms in business in the process.
