At 111 years Maria Stella becomes the oldest person in Malta

Maria Stella Farrugia, born on the 7th of March 1912, turned 111 this year and is the oldest known person in Malta.

Born in Mosta, Maria lived in Imsida, but during the war, when one of her brothers died at 37 years during an air raid ishe resided in Ħamrun Her mother also lived to a grand old age of 100 Maria has lived a simple life and had three children, Josephine (now deceased), Angelo, who lived in Sydney (dead 1979), and Carmen Being a seamstress, she earned money to supplement the family income by doing crochet and making blankets

Maria even went around the streets selling fresh milk from the family goat. She recalls going to Msida to wash her clothes at "L-Ghajn Tal-Ħasselin" (the communal washing area) She became a widow in 1962

Maria is currently cared for by her daugh-