Living acorss the centuries

Her doctor attributed her longevity to the
fact that she is cared for by loved ones.
Image and caption: The New York Times

What I read 
 In "Emma Morano, last person alive born in 1800s, turns 117" (2016), Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports on the life and upcoming 117th birthday of Italian Emma Morano, who was born in 1899 and it still alive in the 21st century, although now bedridden in the home she has not left for 20 years. AFP suggests that Emma attributes her long life to a diet of mainly eggs and cookies, but also noting that she has kept herself independent and lived alone since she got rid of an abusive husband in 1938.

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My response
I don't normally blog articles from the Bangkok Post, but that is where I first saw this story, which the Post got from its AFP news provider. I subsequently saw the BBC News and New York Times versions of the story, and I'm sure many other daily newspapers around the world wrote it up. Naturally, people are interested in the "secret" of growing so old, and there was a bit of variation there: all the sources I read report that Mrs. Morano lives mainly on eggs, preferably raw, but the number of raw ones varied a bit. The New York Times (NYT) account, "Emma Morano, World’s Oldest Person, Turns 117" (2016), explicitly says that "she believed that her secret to longevity was eating three raw eggs a day and remaining single," while the BBC News story at "World's oldest person Emma Morano celebrates 117th birthday" (2016) has her attribute her 117 years to "a rather unusual diet of three eggs - two raw - each day for more than 90 years." It was a minor detail, but one that I noticed in reading the different news coverage. I don't have a very high opinion of the Bangkok Post's news reporting, but AFP has an excellent reputation, and I'm inclined to agree with their version as reported in the Post. The NYT's writer seems to have drawn on his earlier interview with Mrs Morano, and that might have been exaggerated a little.

I thought that the variation was interesting because it also connects with a point that has come up in some of your recent blogging, and which one of the questions we responded to from Skillful yesterday asked: "How do you know the information you find on the Internet is accurate?" This question, of course, does not only apply to the Internet - there is rubbish published in the print edition of the Bangkok Post every day which, while perhaps not outright lies, gives a seriously false image of domestic Thai politics and the society that produces those false images for the captive domestic Thai audience. And during the recent US election, concerns were raised about the competence of citizens to sort fact from fantasy on Facebook, as Den has already written on.

Finally, apart from the raw eggs, the thing that most attracted me in Emma's story was that she has been alone and independent since 1938, after getting rid of her rotten husband. That's almost 80 years of living alone! I like it because it takes courage to to that, especially for  a woman of her generation, when social values and attitudes were much less morally developed than they are today. I've lived alone for most of the 40 years since I left home to study at university, and I rather like it, as Emma seems to. I'm not sure how I would feel if I were twice my current age: perhaps I'll get a chance to find out.

I was also reminded of my own 86 year old mum, but ... my coffee has come to an end.

Edited 8:47 AM - an addition
I would normally put any later thoughts in a comment, as I already have, but I can't show the YouTube clip in a comment, so have added it here.
I often multitask by listening to music on YouTube as I'm getting dressed. This morning, I was reminiscing to some Freddie Mercury and Queen when "Living on My Own" came up. Freddie's lyrics directly contradict what I wrote in my response above: although I've lived alone for most of my life, I've rarely felt lonely. The timely coincidence was a good excuse to include a sample of the work of one the greatest ever rock singers in my blog post. I hope you enjoy it.

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Reference

• Emma Morano, last person alive born in 1800s, turns 117. (2016, November 29). Bangkok Post. Retrieved from http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/world/1147125/emma-morano-last-person-alive-born-in-1800s-turns-117