“World’s Oldest Blogger” Dies

A Spanish grandmother who became an Internet sensation after dubbing herself the “World’s Oldest Blogger” has died at 97.

Maria Amelia Lopez, who died Wednesday, began blogging from her home in Galicia two years ago, winning over a large fan base of readers with her eclectic mix of commentary and nostalgia infused with a sharp wit.

She was introduced to the Internet when her grandson set up the blog as a gift to mark her 95th birthday.

“Today it’s my birthday and my grandson, who is very stingy, gave me a blog, when I was 95 years old … and my life changed … now, I can communicate and interact with the world.” she wrote on her first post on amis95.blogspot.com on December 23, 2006.

It proved a great escape for Lopez writing about personal health problems, from trips to the doctor to bouts of dizziness, to her opinion on current events and modern day life.

Using a mix of humor and nostalgia she shared her experiences of getting old and enlightened readers about life during the long dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

Lopez blogged from her seaside home in Muxia, on the Galician coast, where she was born in 1911. Her musings quickly earned her followers from across the world and she clocked up more than 1.5 million visitors to her blog. Her fame even saw Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero drop in for a chat.

In recent months Lopez was increasingly posting video messages on her blog instead of written texts because cataracts impaired her vision.

In one of her last postings in February she said: “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.”

Her family left a posthumous post, thanking readers for their support. “[There were] 880 days when her blog made her happy… the support she needed to enjoy her last days of life,” they wrote.

“When somebody leaves after 97 years, living with joy from the beginning to the end, we can’t be sad. Wherever you are, grandmother, you will read these comments, all of them without doubt. She will laugh at some, will learn with others, she might get annoyed at the specific ‘language’ used in some … but she will be happy reading all of them.”

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Worst Places to be a Blogger

This article from CNN: Worst Places to be a Blogger, is a stark reminder to let us not take for granted the fundamental Freedom of the Press we enjoy here in the U.S.

“Myanmar — also known as Burma — is the worst place in the world to be a blogger…A military government restricts Web access and throws people into jail for posting critical material…”

“… One Burmese blogger, Maung Thura, is serving a 59-year prison term for circulating video footage after Cyclone Nargis in 2008, the Committee to Protect Journalists says.”