Tech & Biz

Maria Amelia Lopez: World's Oldest Woman Blogger Dead at 97

by Tina Kells | May 21, 2009 at 05:58 pm

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Maria Amelia Lopez only blogged for the first time two years ago, at the age of 95, but her musings on life and how much had changed in little less than a century quickly caught on in the knowledge hungry Web 2.0 world.

Visit Maria Amelia Lopez's Blog (In Spanish)

The self-proclaimed World's Oldest Woman Blogger from Spain is dead at the age of 97 and she will be sadly missed by her legions of fans. However, thanks to the power of the Internet Maria Amelia Lopez will live on in the words and thoughts she posted on her blog.

A mix of opinions and nostalgia, tinged with a waspish sense of humour, her postings gave a deeply personal insight into the process of getting old.

She enlightened younger readers about her experience as an opponent of the Franco regime. And she blogged on modern-day politics ranging from the threat from Basque separatism to Iran's nuclear ambitions.

As her fame spread, the blog won rave reviews from as far afield as Alaska, China and Nigeria - and a prestigious international media award. There was even a meeting with Spain's prime minister.

This was one of her final postings, in February this year: "When I'm on the internet, I forget about my illness. The distraction is good for you - being able to communicate with people. It wakes up the brain, and gives you great strength."

Maria Amelia Lopez was the world's oldest living blogger but she was not the oldest woman to ever blog. In 2008 two centaurians died within 6 months of one another; Ruth Hamilton, of Orlando, Florida was just shy of her 110th birthday when she died on January 18, 2008, and Olive Riley of Australia was 108 when she passed on July 15, 2008.

At the age of 104, the UKs Ivy Bean is officially the oldest MICRO blogger and is a celebrated Twitter sensation with more than 14,470 followers as of publication (I was number 14,470). Follow Ivy Bean on Twitter @IvyBean104.

But the true addiction of twitter and it’s fan following can now be judged. Ivy Bean is a 104 years old woman and lives in a care home in Bradford, has 4,800 friends on Facebook, reports The Sun. She has become the oldest twitter user of UK but I think it also makes her the oldest twitter user in the world. As there are no other reporting of any old person using twitter.

But we might see other old people using twitter in future. Let’s see who beats this tough record. This brings one more interesting question, who is the world’s youngest twitterer?