Sad news from Australia, Olive Riley has died.
She was born in 1899 and died at the age of 108.
And yes, she was the oldest blogger in the world
More after the flip
This is her blog:
http://www.allaboutolive.com.au/
It’s happened, friends. Ollie left us last Saturday morning (july 12th.) at around six am.
We’d seen her just the day before, Katya and I, and, as I worked on post 71 earlier today, I did not know she had already gone.
I don’t know the details yet, but I imagine it was a very peaceful passing. She’d been at peace when we saw her and I guess that sleep just kept going on till the final moment.
Even so Katya and I are stunned, not because her death was unexpected, but because she was such a large part of our lives.
It’s funny to say this, but doing the blog with her, doing all the typing, the photographs, the movies, has been a big part of my life this last year, something that many friends couldn’t quite understand.
"Why all this effort for an old lady? they’d ask, "Are you in a hurry to age yourself?" (Me being 70 this year)
Quite the contrary. Olive Riley’s been keeping me young.
Her example says; if a woman who left school in 1914, can embrace the internet in her 106th year, what is there you can’t do, friend?
My parents both died tragically young, Dad at 59, and Mum at 65.
As I passed their death dates, I had the feeling of having reached the family age limit, of being on the downward slope. That is till I met Ollie.
I’d met thirty other centenarians before I came across this amazing person, the encounters all part of research for a documentary on why so many people now live to one hundred. None came close to Olive.
Now, she didn't type the text herself, she couldn't do that. But the stories she told, those were amazing. Apparenly she did enjoy her life :)
There are other people who need help so that they can use the Internet. But i, like many others, do count this as blogging.
John McCain, a youthful little rascal, is trying to learn how to use the Internet. Clearly it is never too late.
Anyway, sad day for many Australians. I don't think her story was well known in the US. I myself saw her in the news some time ago, it was the story of a 107 year old blogger back then :)
More about Riley:
Here
And here.
And as she didn't handle the technical side of blogging, this guy did it for her. Behind that link you can find more Youtube videos of Olive Riley.