World's Oldest Blogger

I find it sad when I read about someone I wish I could meet, but only first learn about this person after he or she has died. Still, the obituary for the "world's oldest blogger" made me smile. Maybe she reminds me of my own e-mailing, Internet-searching grandmother, (but not a blogger - I guess she just leaves that to the grandchildren) who proves how technologically savvy her generation can be when given a few (patient) tutorials.

Chris complained in jest that someday we won't need to talk to each other anymore - we'll just read each other's blogs. I don't think we'll ever lose the need for face-to-face communication, but blogging gives those who want to participate the creative outlet to express thoughts that wouldn't otherwise come up in conversation. Just like I'll have a record someday for my children about this point in my life, I think the family of the World's Oldest Blogger are thankful a blog has given them two and a half year's worth of this woman's unique views on the world.

Now I'm just lamenting that Maria Lopez's blog posts are in Spanish, which I don't speak.

Maria Amelia Lopez, Spanish granny blogger, dead at 97

Associated Press

MADRID - A Spanish great-grandmother who described herself as the world's oldest blogger — and became a Web sensation as she mused on events current and past — has died at the age of 97.

Maria Amelia Lopez died May 20 in her hometown of Muxia in Spain's northwest Galicia region, according to her blog amis95.blogspot.com. No cause of death was given.

Lopez started blogging in 2006 after her grandson — "who is very stingy," she wrote — created the site as a present for her 95th birthday.

The blog went on to attract a huge following, with more than 1.7 million hits, as Lopez shared her thoughts on everything from life in Spain under the dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, which she criticized.

Lopez said discovering the Internet and communicating with people all over the world changed her life, and she urged elderly people everywhere to get wired.

"It took 20 years off my life," Lopez wrote. "My bloggers are the joy of my life. I did not know there was so much goodness in the world."

Lopez's notoriety even earned her a meeting last year with Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who she supported enthusiastically.

"He was charming," Lopez wrote. "I would have liked to speak to him more, but I was so excited I was speechless."

-----
The World's Oldest Blogger was even on Facebook! Read on....


Maria Amelia Lopez: "World's Oldest Blogger," 97, Dies In Spain

A Spanish great-grandmother who billed herself as the "world's oldest blogger" and who gained a global following on the Internet, died today at the age of 97, local officials and reports said.

Maria Amelia Lopez, who was introduced to the world of blogging by one of her grandchildren, used a mix of humour and nostalgia to recall life during the long dictatorship of Francisco Franco and give her take on modern life.

"Today it's my birthday and my grandson, who is very stingy, gave me a blog," she wrote on her first post on amis95.blogspot.com on December 23, 2006.

Her blog quickly soared in popularity after the media reported on it, having seen more than 1.5 million hits, and it earned Lopez a meeting with Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who she openly supported.

In summer, Lopez would write from her seaside home in Muxia in northwestern Spain, where she was born in 1911; and from the Galician farmhouse where she lived with her grandson Daniel during the rest of the year.

Her posts touched on personal health problems, from trips to the doctor to bouts of dizziness, to her opinion on current events; from the violence of the Basque separatists to Iran's nuclear pretensions.

She blogged sporadically -- sometimes once a week, sometimes daily -- with the aid of her grandson because cataracts impaired her vision.

In recent months Lopez was increasingly posting video messages on her blog instead of written texts.

In one of her last posts made in February, she enthused about how the "Internet amazes me more and more" after her grandson Daniel introduced her to the social networking site Facebook.

She promptly set up a group on Facebook to defend old people's rights.

"One day soon I am going to die. All I am really scared of is losing my mind. In the meantime, I'll carry on," she said in an interview with Britain's The Guardian newspaper in September 2007.