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Maria da Encarnacao Sousa
Maria da Encarnacao Sousa
Maria da Encarnacao on her 113th birthday in 2022.
Birth: 20 March 1909
Tourais, Guarda District, Portugal
Death: 20 July 2022
Oliveira do Hospital, Coimbra District, Portugal
Age: 113 years, 122 days
Country: PortugalPOR
Validated

Maria da Encarnacao Nunes de Sousa [Portuguese: Encarnação] (20 March 1909 – 20 July 2022) was a Portuguese supercentenarian whose age is validated by LongeviQuest (LQ), and the European Supercentenarian Organisation (ESO). She was the oldest living person in Portugal at the time of her death. She was one of the oldest known survivors of COVID-19, recovering from the disease at the age of 113, and is also the oldest person in Portugal to have contracted and recover from the disease.

Biography[]

Early Life[]

Maria da Encarnacao Nunes de Sousa was born in Tourais, Seia, Guarda District, Portugal on 20 March 1909 to Jose Simoes Nunes and Carlota de Oliveira. She married at the age of 25 and had nine children: two of them died at an early age, and the remaining seven are alive as of January 2021. Later, she moved to the Belgian Congo (present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo). She returned to Portugal in 1969.

Later Life[]

Nunes de Sousa lived in the nursing home Centro Social Paroquial Nossa Senhora da Assuncao of Vila Nova de Tazem since the age of 100. She became the oldest known living person from Portugal, following the death of 110-year-old Romana Marques on 15 June 2019.

As of January 2021, she had 14 grandchildren, 21 great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren.

On 12 January 2021 at the age of 111, she received her first dose of the Pfizer/BionTech vaccine, making her one of oldest people to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Following the death of Albano Andrade on 29 June 2021, she became the last known living person in Portugal born in 1909, as well as in the 1900s decade.

COVID-19 Survival and after[]

In April 2022, she had COVID-19 and quickly recovered, making her one of the oldest known survivors of the disease, as well as the oldest person in Portugal to have contracted and survived the disease.

Maria da Encarnacao died on 20 July 2022 at the age of 113 years, 122 days, at the hospital of Oliveira do Hospital, Coimbra District, Portugal, where she had been hospitalized for a day. At the time of her death, she was the fifth-oldest living person in Europe, behind Lucile Randon, Tekla Juniewicz, Maria Branyas Morera, and Luise Pompe. She was also the last Portuguese to have been born during the monarchy, as well as the last to have been born in the 1900s decade.

She is currently the third-oldest person ever from Portugal, behind Maria de Jesus and Maria do Couto Maia-Lopes.

Gallery[]

References[]


Portugal's Oldest Living Person Titleholders (VE)

Maria da Conceicao Silva • Unknown • Maria Alves de Jesus • Unknown • Antonio de Almeida • Unknown • Maria Pereira • Unknown • Custodia JacintoRosa Cadete • Unknown • Mariana Chiromo • Unknown • Elvira de Jesus Caldeira • Jose Ferreira Andrade • Maria do Couto Maia-Lopes • Maria de Jesus • Augusto Moreira de Oliveira • Antonio de Castro • Maria Luiza Nunes da Silva • Carmelina Augusta Delgado •   Maria Dolores Ferreira • Laurinda da Conceicao • Maria da Conceicao • Joaquina Martins • Romana Marques • Maria da Encarnacao SousaIsabel Gomes SarmentoInacia CarmelinoMaria da Conceicao Brito

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