July 15, 2008, 9:42:00 AM By NetEase Source: NetEase
Olive Riley's Last Blog Post (IT World Image)
According to a Reuters report from Canberra on July 15, Olive Riley, the world's oldest blogger and an Australian woman, has passed away at the age of 108. In her last blog post, she described her life filled with both pain and happiness.
Riley lived in Woy Woy, 50 miles north of Sydney, and started writing her blog in February of the previous year. In her blog, Riley narrated her life during the two World Wars, her experiences raising three children, and her time as a chef in the sparsely populated inland areas of Australia.
Although Riley was physically frail, she remained spirited, and many people enjoyed visiting her blog "The Life of Riley" (www.allaboutolive.com.au) to watch videos of her talking and singing on YouTube.
Riley was the world's oldest blogger, surpassing Maria Amelia from Spain by 12 years. Born in 1899, Riley would have turned 109 in October.
"She really loved this title; it kept her mind sharp," said Darren Stone, Riley's great-grandson who lives in Brisbane, in an interview with a local newspaper.
"People from as far as Russia and the United States were continuously communicating with her," Stone said.
Since February of last year, Riley published over 70 posts with the help of friends. In her 74th post, written on June 26 and also her last blog post (http://worldsoldestblogger.blogspot.com), Riley mentioned moving into a nursing home and discussed her health condition: "I still feel very weak and keep coughing."
In the post, she also talked about how she sang every day. On that day, she sang a "happy song" with a visitor. She said she "read all the emails and comments from netizens and was delighted to receive your messages. Thank you each and every one of you."
Riley passed away in the nursing home on Saturday.