The world’s oldest woman has revealed the secret to her long life and it’s probably not what any of us were expecting…
Emma Morano, born in northern Italy on November 29th 1899, is now the world’s oldest person at 116, after the previous holder of the title, Susannah Mushatt Jones, died in New York last week.
According to The Telegraph, Mrs Morano is now the only person in the world who was born in the 19th century, and her secret – three eggs a day, two of them raw, and a little raw minced meat.
She has stuck to her strange diet ever since she was diagnosed with anaemia at the age of 20.
As well as the raw eggs and meat, she credits her longevity with having left her violent husband in 1938 – shortly after the death of her only child – and she has remained single ever since.
Her incredible life has seen two World Wars, the coming of the nuclear age and the invention of email and the Internet.
It sounds like Mrs Morano was pretty pleased to learn she was now the world’s oldest living human.
One of her carers, 72-year-old Rosi Santoni, told The Telegraph:
She was told this morning and she said: “My word, I’m as old as the hills,” but she was very pleased.
Considering her age she is in pretty good health. She does find walking very tiring, though, and she has a nap during the day.
According to Mrs Santoni, Mrs Morano’s social life is a bit limited these days – her sight and hearing are both sadly failing – but also because most of her friends have passed away.
On her birthday she received a telegram from Sergio Mattarella, the president of Italy, and a signed parchment from Pope Francis wishing her ‘good health and serenity of spirit’.
What an incredible life, I’m not sure I could do the raw eggs thing though…
