Angelina Friedman 101 year old Lake Mohegan, Westchester, New York woman beats COVID-19, after previously surviving the Spanish flu and cancer.
A 101 year old Westchester, New York woman who survived the Spanish flu of 1918 as well beating cancer can now also add triumphing over COVID-19 to her checklist.
Angelina Friedman is the latest centurion to beat the novel coronavirus, more than 100 years after her mother died giving birth to her aboard a passenger ship bringing immigrants from Italy to New York City during the second wave of the great influenza pandemic of 1918.
The feat follows Friedman having to overcome many other adversities, including miscarriages, cancer, sepsis and now her second pandemic, COVID-19.
At 101, Angelina has outlived her husband and 10 siblings.
‘Her mother died giving birth on the ship, and she was taken care of by her two sisters, who were also on board,’ Friedman’s daughter Joanne Merola told via Pix11.
Friedman and her two sisters reunited with their father in Brooklyn, where she was raised.
She went on to marry Harold Friedman and the two started a family. However, both contracted cancer.
‘She and my dad had cancer at the same time. She survived. He didn’t,’ Merola said.
Now Friedman is the last of her surviving siblings and is still going strong.
‘Everybody in the family lived until at least 95, except one uncle. My mother is a survivor. She is not human. She has superhuman DNA,’ Merola said.
101 year old who continues to live through life’s adversities:
Freidman now lives at the North Westchester Restorative Therapy and nursing Center in Lake Mohegan, New York.
She was taken to the hospital on March 21 for a minor medical procedure and was diagnosed with COVID-19.
She spent a week there before returning to isolation in her nursing home. On April 20 she finally tested negative for the virus.
Merola says her mother suffered from on and off fevers but never had respiratory symptoms.
Merola hasn’t been able to visit her mother since February and says Friedman is nearly deaf and they can’t talk on the phone.
Friedman’s nursing home shared a photo of the resilient patient on April 24 writing: ‘Lets hear it for Angelina our 101 year old resident who beat COVID-19 & is doing great!!!!!’
In the spring the Angelina was crowned prom queen at an event at the nursing home.
Nurses tell her that Friedman is doing incredibly well since beating the virus.
‘They tell me she’s doing great. She’s up and about as much as possible. She’s looking for wool to crochet with. If my mother could see this I’d tell her, “You keep going, Ma. You’re gonna outlive us all,”‘ Merola said.
New York continues to be the epicenter of the virus outbreak in the US. As of Tuesday noon there are more than 298,004 cases of COVID-19 and over 22,623 fatalities in the state.
