Farewell, Old Woman

I asked a couple of people what I should write about tonight, but no one gave any helpful suggestions.  Actually, Mother gave me a really funny and good suggestion, but then took it away from me and told me I cannot write about it.  Sorry.  If you really want me to write the post, leave some comments or email her and tell her to give me permission.  :)

Anyhow, today, we say “farewell” to the oldest known woman in the world.  At 115 years old, Maria de Jesus of Portugal died yesterday.  But wait, isn’t her name backwards?  Shouldn’t it be Jesus of Mary rather than Mary of Jesus.  Ah well…

So Maria apparently outlived 3 of her 6 children.  I actually feel sorry for her on that account.  My grandmother always says that “losing a child is unnatural.”  Losing a parent, on the other hand, is bound to happen one day… unless your parent has some sort of super gene that causes him or her to live past 100 years.  In fact, there are currently 82 women and 9 men in the world verified to be over 110 years old. 

Maria left the world to 3 of her 6 children, 11 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren, and so far 5 great-great-grandchildren.  Imagine those family portraits!  Five living together on earth.  Crazy thought.  Crazy reality.  It’s even crazier to think about the fact that she got to live through 3 different centuries.  Born in 1893, she lived through 7 years of the 1800’s, ALL of the 1900’s and 8 years of the 2000’s.  She was born the same year dishwashers were invented and lived through the creations of television, movies, computers, and cellular phones.

Before de Jesus, a woman from Indiana was the oldest person in the world until she died in November.  And now, the title goes to a 114 year old born in Georgia.  Isn’t America supposed to be an unhealthy nation, where everyone is fat and dies young?  I thought all the really old people lived in China.  Oh yeah?  Well, take that world!  America has really old people too!

 

P.S.  The top of this post says I wrote this on January 4.  However, I am actually in the Central Time Zone, where the time is currently 11:35 PM.  Thus, I have still upheld my New Years Resolution and will write again tomorrow.  Peace.