MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Longest-living woman in Argentina dies aged 115

Since January, Casilda was also the longest-living person in Latin America

Although born in Paraguay, Casilda Benegas de Gallegos used to be Argentina's longest-living woman. She died in Mar del Plata at the age of 115, after surviving a bout of COVID-19 in 2020.

“I will always remember you this way, laughing. It is difficult not to feel a huge pain to know that we will no longer have you among us and at the same time it makes me happy to know that we love you and enjoy you very much,” said Mayra, one of her great-granddaughters, on Facebook.

“We are the luckiest family on the planet because we had you in our lives much more than we could have imagined. Casildita, I will love you for the rest of my life and much more,” Mayra added.

Casilda had arrived in Argentina in 1945. She traveled through several northern provinces until she settled in Mar del Plata, where she lived until 2001. Between 2001 and 2013 she lived in Spain, but came back to Mar del Plata that year to check at a home for the elderly in that city. In 2020, by Christmas time, Casilda was infected with the COVID-19 virus but sailed through the disease without symptoms, thus becoming the second oldest person worldwide to recover from the malady and the fourth oldest person in the world to be vaccinated against it.

During her last years, Casilda spoke very little, and mostly in Guarani. She is survived by two children, eight grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and three great-great-grandchildren.

Since last January when the Brazilian Antonia da Santa Cruz died, Casilda had taken over as the longest-living person in Latin America, according to the site Gerontology Wiki. At the time of her death, she was also the fourth oldest woman in the world, according to the same source.

The Mar del Plata City Council had appointed her an outstanding citizen last year.