Oldest Austrian to turn 110

Hermine Nistler, the oldest person in Austria, will celebrate her 110th birthday this Christmas Eve (24 December).The Vienna-born woman can look back on a life of ups and many downs. Her parents died when she was just eight years old when a lung disease epidemic raged in the capital’s poverty-stricken population.Nistler, who used to work as a chambermaid, is the mother of two children. While her son died in World War Two aged just 23, her daughter is still alive and well at the age of 85.Newspapers in the capital city report today (Thurs) that Hermine will spend Christmas with her two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren at the retirement home where she has been living for many years.The second-oldest Austrian is a Salzburg-based woman who turned 109 last September, according to statistics agency Statistik Austria. Its records also show that five of the country’s 10 oldest citizens are living in Vienna.