Virginia Beach Resident Celebrates 110 Years

By Alfonso Aguilar
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the issue of 2/7/02)

VIRGINIA BEACH — With flamenco dancers, a musical trio and a huge cake, doña Consuelo Moreno López of Virginia Beach celebrated her 110th birthday accompanied by her vivacious family which spans five generations.

"My little daughter, my little daughter," she cried emotionally as Maria Sanchez, 80 years old, hugged her mother, who was seated in a wheelchair, happy and wearing a scarf with the colors of the American flag over her shoulders.

"My little boy, my little boy," she said to her great-great-grandson Christopher Williams, a tall youngster, 15, who bent down to kiss his great grandmother.

Five years ago, at age 105, doña Consuelo became the oldest person to become a naturalized U.S. citizen, and now, at age 110, she could be the second oldest person in the world, just behind Maude Farris-Luse, an American woman, 114.

Doña Consuelo has managed to cross three centuries. She was born in the 19^th century, lived through the 20th and is still alive in the new 21st century. Although no official record mentions her name among the oldest persons in the world, it seems that doña Consuelo recently became the second oldest.

Five years ago the Guinness Book of Records mentioned Jeanne Calment of France, as the oldest person in the world, at 122 years. She died in 1997. In 1999, Sarah Knauss, a 119-year-old American, passed away a day before the new millennium. In June 2000 Brazilian Maria do Carmo died at age 129, although her age was never confirmed by official records. Four months later, Eva Morris from England, died at age 115.

Last January, the oldest man in the world died at 112. His name was Antonio Todde, from Italy. Amazingly, hours later, his compatriot, Maria Grazo Broccolo, died at age 110.

Given that all persons but one mentioned by Guinness and other Web page sources on aging are dead, it seems that doña Consuelo is the second oldest person in the world.

Doña Consuelo Moreno López was born to Spanish parents in Tangier, Morocco, on Jan. 31, 1892. She attended Catholic schools and was married in 1915. For many decades she dedicated her life to family, cooking and dressmaking. She had seven children, of which two currently survive: Maria Sanchez, 80, of Virginia, and Antonio Romero, 71, of Washington, DC.

At age 72, doña Consuelo moved to the United States, and still resides in Virginia Beach. Although she has no illness, she has been limiting her activities. An occasional sweet libation and the reading of the Bible in the afternoon, activities she enjoyed for many decades, have disappeared due to weakness related to her age. According to some relatives, doña Consuelo sometimes mixes memories, calling her daughter her mommy or denying her age.

"Oh, no, I am 80-something, and you can see my passport," she is fond of saying.

"Well, she died because she was really old, very old," she says when informed by a relative or nurse of the death of a patient at Sentara Nursing Center in Virginia Beach, where she is not only the oldest person, but also the longest-residing resident.

Beyond some occasional confusion, says Maria Sanchez, "my mother looks great and is very conscious."

Besides, doña Consuelo believes she can survive many more years. "Sometimes I say ‘God, I think it is time to pick me up.’ But if He doesn’t, it is because God always knows what He is doing."

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