SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain – Maria Amelia Lopez, known around the world as “the blogging granny,” died in the northern Spanish town of Muxia, municipal officials told Efe Thursday. She was 97.

The elderly woman had become famous for her blog “At age 95,” which she started on the day she turned that age, on Dec. 22, 2006.

The blog quickly became one of the most popular on the Web and it was even recognized in 2007 with a prize for best Spanish-language blog from German international television network Deutsche Welle.

It was Maria Amelia’s grandson who gave her the blog as a birthday gift to provide her with a platform for telling about her experiences and help her feel less lonely. Lopez told Efe after receiving the German award that the gift was perfect because she “was feeling down” because all of her friends had passed away.

In that same interview, Maria Amelia acknowledged that she was “addicted to the Internet.”

“Broadband thrilled me, gave me a window to a world in which I could learn many, many things,” she said.

Lopez also said then that she was enormously pleased to have people writing to her from all over the world: “They love me even though they’ve never seen me.”

“Internet friends, today I turned 95. My name is Maria Amelia and I was born in Muxia on December 23, 1911. Today is my birthday and my grandson, little bugger that he is, gave me a blog as a gift. I hope I’ll be able to write a lot and tell you about the life experiences of a woman my age,” the elderly blogger wrote in her inaugural post. EFE