Malta’s Oldest Living Person Celebrates 109th Birthday
Grace Gatt, who is believed to be Malta’s oldest living person, celebrated her 109th birthday yesterday.
A birthday party was thrown in her honour at the Imperial retirement home in Sliema, where she resides.
Born in 1916, Grace is the granddaughter of Malta’s first Prime Minister Joseph Howard.
In 1940, when Malta was under heavy siege in the Second World War, she married Alfred Gatt, who she had met at a carnival company.
They continued to take part in carnival dance competitions throughout their early years of marriage.
Grace and her family were evacuated from Valletta in 1941 due to heavy bombing and moved to Mosta, and eventually Sliema.
In 1942, she gave birth to her son Edgar in a war shelter and her second son John was born less than two years later.
Grace was an avid cook, opera enthusiast and fan of Russian history and culture. She was friends with Russian princess Nathalie Poutiatine, who fled to Malta as a refugee after the Bolshevik Revolution and established the country’s first ballet school.
Unfortunately, Alfred passed away when she was only 61 and John passed away a few years ago.
In an interview with The Sunday Circle two years ago, Edgar said that while his mother doesn’t know the secret to her long life, she believes it could be related to her previous evening ritual – a tot of whisky followed by a light dinner of salad and a boiled egg.
Happy birthday Grace!