The world has a new oldest person. Meet Emma Morano of Verbania, Italy. At 116-years-old, Morano is believed to be the last documented person alive who was born in the 1800s.
Morano was said to be "pleased" upon hearing her new title, caregivers told The Telegraph this morning. "She was told this morning and she said ‘My word, I’m as old as the hills'," Rosi Santoni, a 72-year-old relative of Morano, said.
The former titleholder, 116-year-old Susannah Mushatt Jones, died Thursday night in New York City after being sick for the past 10 days.
For Morano, it was business as usual, despite the big news. The supercentenarian had her usual breakfast of milk with biscuits and had a lunch of semolina with boiled eggs.
As for her key to longevity, Morano has some unusual secrets. She's been eating two raw eggs a day for decades after a doctor suggested it when she was a young woman, to help counter anemia.
And here's something the doctor might not prescribe, but it seems to have worked out for Morano. Last year, she told The New York Times that she credits her longevity to being single since ending an unhappy marriage at age 38.
"I didn’t want to be dominated by anyone,” she explained.
If that seems like unlikely longevity advice, other centenarians also have cited some surprising habits. Mushatt-Jones was said to still eat fried bacon every single day. And a California man has said he's lived to 100 thanks to his donut-a-day habit for the last 30 years.
Whatever works.