BIOGRAPHY

Maria da Encarnação Nunes de Sousa was born in Pradinho, Guarda District, Portugal, on 20 March 1909. She married at the age of 25 and had nine children, though two of them passed away at a young age. At some point, the family relocated to the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). In 1969, she returned to Portugal.

At the age of 100, she moved into a nursing home in Vila Nova de Tazem in Guarda District. At the age of 113, she had 14 grandchildren, 23 great-grandchildren and three 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 the oldest people to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Maria da Encarnação Nunes de Sousa passed away 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.

RECOGNITION

On 15 June 2019, following the death of 110-year-old Romana de Sousa Marques, she became the oldest known living person in Portugal.

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 the entire decade of the 1900s.

Her age was validated by the ESO on 17 April 2021.

ATTRIBUTION

* “Mulher portuguesa vacinada contra a Covid-19 aos 111 anos” – Correio da Manha, 13 January 2021

* “Morreu Encarnação Sousa, a mulher mais velha de Portugal” – Correio da Manhã, 22 July 2022

GALLERY