Signora Emma Morano from Ciavasco (Piedmont) celebrated her 116th birthday on the 29th November last winter, making her the world's oldest living person after the recent decease of the Afro-American Susanna Mushatt Jones, who was born 4˝ months before her in 1899.
Signora Morano worked in a jute mill when she was young and afterwards became a cook. In 1938 she separated from her husband, vowing that she would never marry again. She says that this decision has helped to prolong her life, along with her habit of eating two eggs every day.
According to the Osservatorio sulla Salute delle Regioni Italiani, (OHCR), the Italian Observatory on Health Care of the Regions, after Japan, Italy is the country with the greatest number of centenarians, counting 4.1 every 10,000 inhabitants. At present there are almost 20,000 people that have reached their hundredth birthday, a number that has tripled in the last ten years.
Info: www.osservasalute.it
