momento mori for 19th century

[oldcynic]

Just imagine, for a moment, what this woman has seen. She would have been like Martha, the last passenger pigeon, or the last Tasmanian Tiger. Try to imagine the conversation if she had been able to talk with Ishi? Another chunk of our memory lost.

Emma Morano was born on 29 November 1899 in the Piedmont region of Italy. She was officially the last person born in the 1800s still living.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39610937

[sdfernando]

1. Imagine...living in 3 different centurys! WOW! /NT

[LeftInTX]

2. I don't think she remembers the 19th century

But gosh, the technology at the beginning of the 20th century is mind blowing. She lived through 2 world wars. Radio, TV, cars, airplanes and the internet.

My grandmother was born in 1903 in Anatolia Turkey. There was no plumbing. No electricity. The nearest newspaper was at her grandparent's store. There was no train. The nearest was telephone about 30 miles away. She had no photographs of her taken. With the exception of newspapers and fabric, day to day life was pretty much like in the Bible.

No interactions with the opposite sex were allowed. She was "engaged" when she was 7, but married when she was 18. She had a third grade education.

It was so primitive that the women cleaned the men of lice. (eeww)

During the Armenian Genocide they marched 100 miles and then got on the Berlin/Bagdad train to a concentration camp. That was her first encounter with a train.

While in Syria she got married and had her picture taken several times. Then she boarded a boat. By the 1920s, she was settled in America and was wearing flapper outfits! (They were homemade and were a"conservative flapper" style as she already had kids at the time) She cut her hair in a bob. She enjoyed the conveniences of modern society.

She was in an arranged married, so she was fascinated with the forbidden fruit of American dating culture.

She set up an informal "lonely hearts club" in her living room. Young women would visit and complain about their love life and she would give them advice.

She didn't live to see the internet. But she lived to see AIDS and she had a mouthful to say about that!

She also used to ask me, "What is marijuana like". I respond: "I have no idea". She responds, "I know you smoke it, tell me about it". My response was, "No". This went on and on and she finally had a tantrum because I would not tell her the secrets of marijuana.

My grandmother was great woman and was a ton of fun.

[irisblue]

3. Your Grandmother sounds like an amazing woman.

[LeftInTX]

4. She was!!!

[oldcynic]

5. love this kind of story