The elderly are at high risk for contracting coronavirus and dying but this is not the first pandemic many of them have faced and they are tougher than we think, like these seniors listed by the New York Post, who are all 100 years and older, and have managed to overcome Covid-19. They shared their longevity secrets.
Healthy lifestyle choices and a wholesome approach to life are what helped 100-year-old Walter Reed beat a bad bought of the coronavirus recently.
“I never smoked,” the East Rockaway resident said. “I watched my diet. I always try to do the right things: You never hear me cussing … I don’t get angry, I hold my temper down. I walk away and have a good relationship with everybody.”
Rose Leigh-Manuell is known for her positive attitude and it is faith that has kept her uplifted.
“God takes good care of me,” the 101-year-old said.
Rose fell ill in April and battled the virus for two weeks but managed to avoid being put on a ventilator. She walked out of the Good Samaritan Nursing and Rehabilitation Care Center in Sayville fully recovered.
“She always has this upbeat attitude,” her son, Gary Leigh-Manuell, said. “One of her famous sayings is ‘this too shall pass.’ ”
Lilian Menendez, 104, recovered from the coronavirus in April and she says it is good genes that kept her strong.
“My mother was 98 and she didn’t have a gray hair in her head — she was jet black,” Menendez said, adding that her mother also taught her children to be strong, a life lesson the South Huntington, NY resident took to heart.
Now that Menendez has recovered, she is feeling “wonderful.”
“I’m as strong as a bull,” she said.
Jennie Stejna fell seriously ill with the virus last month, but shocked her family, who were prepared to say their final goodbyes, when she made a full recovery. The 103-year-old tested positive for COVID-19 in May, but was cleared a couple of weeks later. Her grandson Dave Stejna said it was her active lifestyle that has kept her fighting fit.
“She’s the most high-energy person I ever met,” he said. “Into her 90s, I would go places with her and I could barely keep up.”
He added: “She’s using her legs. She pedals herself around [the nursing home] where she makes the rounds.”
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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