World's Oldest Blogger María Amelia López Soliño Dies

Times.com

May 22, 2009

Spain


Web-blogger and great-grandmother Maria Amelia Lopez walks along a street of Combarro, in the northern Spanish region of Galicia, in this October 5, 2007 file photo. Lopez, whose blog attracted thousands of readers from around the world, died aged 97 in northern Spain on Wednesday. Lopez charmed readers with a homely mix of memory and chat at http://amis95.blogspot.com/, including stories of a long life which steered through Spain's Civil War and years of dictatorship by General Francisco Franco. Picture taken October 5, 2007.

The world's oldest blogger – a 97-year-old Spanish grandmother introduced to the internet by her grandchildren two years ago – has died. 

Maria Amelia Lopez’s posts touched on many aspects of her long life, from political memories of the Franco era to intimate musings on her increasingly fragile state of health. 

Mrs Lopez blogged from the seaside town of Muxia, where she was born in 1911, or from the farmhouse in Galicia belonging to her grandson, Daniel. 
She wrote: "On December 23rd 2006, my grandson gave me a present, this blog when I was 95 years old ... and my life changed ... now, I can communicate and interact with the world." 

Her blog, at amis95.blogspot.com, became a global hit, notching up more than 1.5 million visits. As her fame spread, Mrs Lopez became an unlikely campaigner for digital rights for older people, and even took tea with the Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the Spanish Prime Minister. 

She wrote frequently of the benefits of the online community she had created. 
In one of her last posts, in February this year, she wrote: "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." 

Mrs Lopez became the world's oldest blogger on the death of 108-year-old Australian Oliver Riley in June 2008. The new holder of this unoffical title is unknown, although the actor Kirk Douglas, 92, who blogs regularly on his MySpace page, could be in the running. 

Twitter's oldest microblogger is the 104-year-old Briton Ivy Bean, who keeps her 14,600 followers entertained at twitter.com/ivybean104. 

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