Life and death

World's oldest person dies at 115

A Portuguese woman who held the title of oldest living person for just five weeks has died at the age of 115.

Maria de Jesus died on 2 January, 2009. One of her six children told a Portugal news agency that her mother never "fell ill, nor took any medication".

Mrs de Jesus had topped the table of people aged 110 or older collated by the Gerontology Research Group after Edna Parker died on 26 November, 2008.

American Gertrude Baines, born 6 April, 1894, is now the oldest living person.

According to AFP news agency, Mrs De Jesus was born in central Portugal.

She started working in agriculture at the age of 12 and never went to school. She could not read or write.

This was taken from the BBC News website....


It got me to thinking --- I'm 42 right now. Sometimes I feel absolutely ancient and other times I feel young as can be. If I were to live to be just 100 years old, I have almost 60 years to live. 60 years! Do you know how much fun I can have in 60 years? How many blog posts I can write? lol I can meet thousands more people, have millions more experiences, have 60 more Christmases and 60 more New Years...If I had had children I would be a Great Great Grandmother I'm sure. I guess I'll just have to settle being a Great Great Aunt.

I am not even through half of my life!

Today has been full of Life and Death today.

I got a phone call that my tenant, Richard, was in surgery. He was finally getting a liver transplant. He's been renting a condo from me for a year now and waiting to get the call that a donor liver was just perfect for him. My husband's transplant came Dec 23rd, 2005. Richard and his family were hoping to share that date with us, since it hadn't arrived sooner. Blessings be, they got the call yesterday. A whole new life begins for them starting today.

A whole new life for the donor family began yesterday. I believe that the donor family feels the blessings in the life they gave for the rest of their lives. I think it increases their love. I know that as the wife of a recipient, it increased my love to both.

John Travolta and Kelly Preston lost their son, Jett, this morning. He was 15 or 16 years old. My prayers go out to them as well.

We don't know if we have 115 years or just 15.
We don't know if we be fortunate enough to gain life because of the donation from another.
We don't know a lot about our future lives.
We do know though that every day matters.

I absolutely love to be alone. I love to watch TV, movies, read, write, look stuff up on the internet, watch my cat sleep and then take naps myself. I doubt if it is really contributing to world peace or anything, but I do know that times like today, when I am asked if I can run someone to the airport - I can say Yes! and get in the car. Maybe I will have 60 more years of being me. I think that would be great. I look forward to more days of helping out people, laughing and hopefully helping solve peace in my household if nothing more.

I wish that more people could give the gift of life when they are grieving the loss of a loved one. It is such a tough decision at such an emotional time. I'm a diabetic, as I've mentioned before, and I wonder if being a diabetic has harmed my chances of being an organ donor. I think about how my health affects me, but ever since 2005, I think about how my health could possibly affect my chances of helping someone else. I'm certainly not living my life so I can be a perfect organ donor, but it crosses my mind every so often.

The new year brings on so many thoughts of life and death. My friend sent me a picture of her new baby. Life. She would be 60 when I turn 100!!

Have a very blessed day.
Kristin