(CNN) – Angelina Friedman has survived cancer, miscarriages, internal bleeding, sepsis, and now not one, but two pandemics. More than 100 years after experiencing the 1918 influenza pandemic, the 101-year-old woman has just beaten the coronavirus.
An administrator at the Mohegan Lake, New York, nursing home where Friedman lives said the woman has become herself again and celebrates life as if nothing has happened.
“It also shows how much the world needs to hope that you can beat this at 101,” Amy Elba told CNN.
Friedman’s daughter Joanne Merola told CNN affiliate WPIX that her mother is a survivor.
“She and my dad had cancer at the same time. She survived. Not him, ”he said.
In 1918 Angelina Sciales (now Friedman) was born on a ship carrying immigrants from Italy to New York City. It was in the midst of the 1918 pandemic. The baby is not believed to have contracted the disease.
Her mother died giving birth, and her two sisters helped her survive until they were able to reunite with her father in New York, where they lived in Brooklyn, Merola told WPIX.
One of 11 siblings, Friedman is the last survivor.
“She is not human,” said Merola. “She has superhuman DNA.”
Now a resident of the North Westchester Restorative Therapy and Nursing Center, Friedman had to fight another pandemic.
“She had gone to the hospital for a procedure and when she returned she had tested positive,” Elba told CNN.
Merola told the affiliate that her mother isolated herself in her room and had a fever for several weeks while fighting the coronavirus, until April 20, when she tested negative.
The nurses called Merola and said Friedman was fine. He was eating again and looking for yarn to knit, they told him.
“She is very active,” said Elba. “She is a great weaver and does all kinds of things and gives them away to visitors.”
The staff threw a big party for Friedman’s 101st birthday, and last year she was named dance queen.
“She is very active. You wouldn’t believe it because of his age, ”said Elba. “He still does his leisure activities that he’s probably done forever.”
Like many other facilities, Elba said, they have established alternative means for patients to remain in contact with their families.
Due to a back injury, Merola has been unable to visit her mother since February, but she does not live far from home. Because their mother is almost deaf, they cannot speak on the phone.
As the graduation season approaches, Elba said that while schools may not have a dance, Friedman will certainly have hers, and she hopes she will be named queen of the prom for the second year in a row.
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