Kenwood teen meets world's oldest person weeks before she died

Mere months before Emma Morano died in Italy at the historic age of 117, the world’s oldest person welcomed into her tiny, simple, walk-up apartment several visitors from Kenwood.

The American most eager to meet Morano was 15-year-old Agustin Reiter, who’s quite the kid. Exceptionally bright and focused, Agustin pursues with intensity his fascination with numbers and with extraordinary people.

Emma Morano, who died only 16 days ago, stood out in both realms.

“Just think,” effused Agustin, who’s tall and trim and perpetually intrigued, “she was the last person alive who was born in the 1800s.”

When Agustin’s parents, Jon and Susan Reiter, late last year introduced the prospect of a family trip to Italy, he implored that the itinerary include the far-northern town of Verbania on Lake Maggiore, an hour’s drive from Milan. That’s where Emma Morano lived.

“It was like, I might be able to run into the oldest person in the world,” said Agustin, who lives with autism and attends the ninth grade at the Anova Center for Education in Santa Rosa.

Agustin’s folks run a homebuilding company in Kenwood, and Jon Reiter climbs mountains. Three years ago he survived a deadly avalanche on Mount Everest.

The Reiters enjoy and encourage their son’s keen interest in people who live past 100. They know it was sparked by a great-grandmother, Anita Williams, who lived to 103.

Agustin said that when Williams died four years and 79 days ago, “for some reason, I just began to focus on longevity.”

Susan and Jon Reiter learn from their son’s research into the longest-living humans, just as they do from his curiosity about all who inhabited the White House. Said Susan, “We’re on a mission to see the grave sites of every president.”

To which her son added, “I also want to see the grave of every vice president.”

As with the presidential grave site tour, the quest to meet Emma Morano, born Nov. 29, 1899, became a family affair. Late last year, Agustin and his mother went online to see if they could arrange a visit in Verbania.

They emailed the tourist town’s Chamber of Commerce and tourist bureau, using an online English-to-Italian language translater. A helpful someone forwarded one of their emails to Emma Morano’s niece, Maria Antoniette Sala.

Sala emailed the Reiters and said, please do come. Just to make sure they were on the same page, the family asked fellow Kenwood resident Vittorio Belmonte of VJB Vineyards and Cellars to phone Morano’s niece.

They were all set. The visit happened on Jan. 3. All three of the Reiters were there, and also Agustin’s grandmother, Carol Reiter.

They found the old apartment building where Morano lived, walked up the three flights of stairs and knocked on the door. They were greeted by Morano’s niece and an interpreter.

Emma Morano lay on her bed. The Reiters could tell she was experiencing some pain. Her niece helped her to sit up and get her legs into a better position.

Recalled Carol Reiter, “She got real excited once she got comfortable.”

Agustin asked if he could sit next to Morano and help to prop her up. Sala welcomed him to do so.

Through the interpreter, Agustin told the oldest person in the world where he lives and how pleased he was to meet her.

Speaking rapidly, Morano said in her native Italian that she was happy that he and his family came to see her.

“For her age,” Agustin said, “she definitely had good hearing.”

The Sonoma County residents thanked Morano and left her some flowers and chocolates. Agustin savored being in the presence of a woman who was 102 years his senior, was world-renowned and was the only known person on the planet born prior to 1900.

Agustin and his parents and grandmother took it more personally than most others around the world when they learned that Morano died on April 15 at the age of 117 years and 137 days.

Agustin wonders, “Were we the last Americans to meet her?”

He’s begun to think about whether he and his family might arrange to meet the current oldest or second-oldest people in the world. They are Violet Brown of Jamaica, who is 117 years and 52 days old, and Japan’s Nabi Tajima, 116 years and 270 days old.

It astounds Agustin to ponder that the two are the only known humans alive who were born in 1900, the eve of the 20th century.

The teen also has a long-range plan: He’s determined to become a centenarian, too. To enhance his chances, he has upgraded his diet and boosted his exercise.

“He barely has any sugar any more,” his mother said. “I used to have to hide the candy.”

Agustin drinks smoothies with raw eggs, a staple of Emma Morano’s diet, and kale. He envisions staying alive and reasonably healthy for a total of about one million hours, or a bit more than 114 years.

Imagine, Agustin said in Kenwood, “One hundred years from now, I might still be living in this little town.”

Living, and perhaps still talking about that day a century earlier that he sat and visited with the oldest person in the world.

Chris Smith is at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.