Mariá Amelia López

Communicating with others “wakes up the brain,” María Amelia López explained in one of the last entries in her acclaimed online journal, amis95.blogspot.com. The name roughly translates as “my 95 years.” That was how old López–who died May 20 at 97–was when she began posting on the blog that her grandson created as a birthday gift. At an age when some elderly women might unwittingly put a floppy disc into a CD drive, López became a worldwide Internet sensation, reaching more than 1.5 million far-flung readers from the comfort of her seaside hometown in Spain.

Like any doting nonagenarian, López sang the praises of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. But she also recalled her opposition to Francisco Franco’s authoritarian regime and grappled with contemporary political debates ranging from Basque separatism to Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Her ingenuity and lively writing won her a sit-down in 2008 with Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

Her biggest impact, though, lay in the example she set. She showed that the Web was not just for the young but for anyone interested in “[interacting] with the world.” For López, amis95 was a way to communicate with her blogueros, the readers who flocked to it in droves–and made her last two years the most connected of her life.