She also acknowledged that her heredity may have contributed to her age of 117, as her mother had achieved the age of 91 and a few of her sisters had reached their 100th birthdays.
Emma was in good health, having recently enlisted the assistance of a full-time caregiver a few years prior to her demise seven years ago. She had reduced her diet to only two eggs and a few wafers per day.
Carlo Bava, her physician of nearly thirty years, disclosed to AFP that his most distinguished patient consumed vegetables and fruit infrequently.
“When I met her, she ate three eggs per day, two raw in the morning and then an omelette at noon, and chicken at dinner,” according to him.
