Estonia's oldest woman, Lisette Otti, dies at 107

TALLINN – Lisette Otti, a 107-year-old woman from Tartu who held the title of Estonia's oldest woman for a full year, died in a nursing home on Monday, reports Tartu Postimees. She would have turned 108 in two months and two weeks.

She is survived by her daughter, two grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and five great-great-grandchildren. The funeral service will be held on Saturday, November 1, and she will be laid to rest at Palamuse cemetery.

Lisette Otti's 81-year-old daughter, Ina Keerak, recalled that her mother was a very hardworking and capable person. She raised and educated her daughter alone, as her father went to war and never returned.

Her mother, Lisette, worked for many years in a fashion studio and was an avid crafter throughout her life, also tending to her garden in the summers. She spent her final year in a nursing home in rather poor health. "Now she no longer has to suffer and can rest in peace," her daughter Ina Keerak said with a sense of relief.

Lisette Otti was born on January 14, 1918, in Toovere, near Palamuse in Jõgeva County. She attended Palamuse school and was the best artist in her class. She also studied for one year at the Pallas Art School in Tartu but left when the Soviets began to arrive and Estonia's statehood was under threat. Lisette instinctively sensed that difficult times were ahead and that life as an artist might not provide a stable income.

She chose to study at the Tartu Women's Vocational School, where she mastered various handicraft skills. Even at the age of 100, she still did cross-stitch embroidery and wished to use more complex techniques, but her eyesight was no longer sharp enough.

Erdman Blank, Estonia's oldest man, also passed away this summer at the age of 107. He was also a resident of Tartu.