Purificacion Martinez | |
Purificacion Martinez at the age of 109. | |
Validated |
Purificacion "Puri" Martinez Julian [Spanish: Purificación Martínez Julián] (2 February 1906 – 4 March 2016) was a Spanish supercentenarian whose age was validated by the Gerontology Research Group (GRG) in 2020.
Biography[]
Purificacion Martinez was born on 2 February 1906 in Barajas, Madrid, Spain, as one of eight children. At the age of seven, in 1913, she started working in a lord’s house, taking care of the youngest children. All through her childhood and into her adulthood, dancing was always a hobby of hers.
In 1930, aged 24, she married Simon Losada [Spanish: Simón] and had four children with him: Ascension (born 1933), Ignacio (born 1937) and Maria del Carmen (born 1945). The couple had a son in 1931, but he died at a young age. The Spanish Civil War (at the front of which her husband worked as a driver) claimed the lives of three of Martinez’s brothers. Martinez was later widowed.
By her 100th birthday in 2006, Martinez was living in a nursing home. Every day from her centenary birthday, she read the newspaper, showing a keen interest in politics. She was wheelchair bound from the age of 106. At the time of her 108th birthday in 2014, she had 10 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. By this time she was also blind and was nearly deaf.
Purificacion Martinez passed away on 4 March 2016 in Madrid, Spain, at the age of 110 years, 31 days.