A New Jersey nursing home resident who tested positive for COVID-19 on her 105th birthday has now defeated the virus and owes her resilience to her ritual of consuming nine gin-infused raisins a day and “ no junk food. ”
Lucia DeClerck, who lives in the Mystic Meadows nursing home in Little Egg Harbor, has survived three husbands, two world wars, and now two pandemics.
The great-great-grandmother, who was two years old when the Spanish flu broke out, has now recovered from the coronavirus more than a century later, after testing positive for the disease on Jan. 25.
DeClerck’s diagnosis came the day after she received her second dose of the Pfizer vaccine, Mystic Meadows administrator Michael Neiman told the New York Times.
Despite being considered a high-risk patient due to her age, Neiman said DeClerck showed no serious symptoms of the virus and was back in her room within two weeks, with her rosaries in her hand and her signature knitted hat and sunglasses.
“I feel great,” she told CBS Monday, and the secret to her longevity was “pray, pray, pray and not junk food.”
But in a conversation with the Times, she said that surviving COVID-19 may have had something to do with another staple in her life: her consumption of nine gin-soaked golden raisins every morning, which she has for most of her life. ate.
“Fill a jar,” she explained. “Nine raisins a day after sitting for nine days.”
Great-great-grandmother Lucia DeClerck (above), who was two years old when the Spanish flu broke out, has now recovered from the coronavirus more than a century later, after testing positive for the disease on Jan. 25.
DeClerck (pictured on her 100th birthday), who lives in the Mystic Meadows nursing home in Little Egg Harbor, has survived three husbands, two world wars and now two pandemics
Her children and her grandchildren remember that the ritual was one of DeClerck’s many lifelong habits and described her as a “health freak.”
Other habits of hers include drinking a homemade concoction of aloe vera juice, apple cider vinegar, ginger and ‘a little bit of gin’ every day.
The 105-year-old also brushes her teeth daily with baking soda – something she grants because she allowed her to keep all of her original teeth and not get her first cavity until she was 99 years old.
“We’d just think,” Grandma, what are you doing? You’re crazy, “her granddaughter, 53-year-old Shawn Laws O’Neil told the Times. ‘Now we have to laugh. She beat everything. that has come her way. ‘
Born in Maui, Hawaii, in 1916 to a Guatemalan mother and Spanish father, DeClerck lived through the Spanish flu pandemic, two world wars and the deaths of three husbands and a son.
She previously lived in Wyoming, California and even moved back to Hawaii for a while, before settling in New Jersey in the late 1970’s, where she lived with her eldest son Henry Laws III and his wife, Lillie Jean.
After celebrating her 90th birthday, DeClerck moved into an adult community in Manahawkin, along the Jersey Shore, where she remained incredibly active until she fell on Christmas Day 2017 and moved to Mystic Meadows.
“She’s just the pinnacle of persistence,” granddaughter Shawn told the Times. Her mind is so sharp. She will remember things when I was a kid that I don’t even remember. ‘
Despite being considered a high-risk patient due to her age, DeClerck showed no serious symptoms of the virus and was back in her room within two weeks, rosaries in hand and signature knitted hat and sunglasses.
Now, after kicking the virus, DeClerck has been renamed by her two surviving sons, five grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren: ‘The 105-year-old badass who kicked Covid’ (DeClerck shows center with family members)
Born in Maui, Hawaii in 1916 to a Guatemalan mother and Spanish father, she experienced the Spanish flu pandemic, two world wars and the deaths of three husbands and a son.
DeClerck is the oldest resident of Mystic Meadows – and a firm favorite among staff and residents, according to Neiman.
“She’s just the sweetest,” Neiman told NJ.com.
After testing positive for COVID on Jan. 25, DeClerck reportedly was scared and struggled to be isolated from her regular caregivers and inmates.
“We were very concerned,” her son Phillip told the Times. “But she has a tenacity that’s incredible.”
DeClerck is one of 62 Mystic Meadows residents who have contracted the virus since the pandemic started last March. Four of them died, including three who received hospice care, the Times reported.
“We’re as careful as possible,” said Neiman, “but this [virus] finds a way to sneak in. ‘
Neiman described DeClerck, a devout Catholic, as a “little scared” when she was diagnosed but said she insisted “God will protect me.”
Now, after kicking the virus, DeClerck has been renamed by her two surviving sons, five grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren: “The 105-year-old badass who kicked Covid.”
She said surviving COVID-19 may have had something to do with another staple in her life: her consumption of nine gin-soaked golden raisins every morning, which she has eaten for most of her life.
DeClerck is the oldest resident of the Mystic Meadows nursing home in Little Egg Harbor (above) – and a firm favorite among staff and residents alike
DeClerck was also surprised on Monday morning with a phone call from New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy.
Murphy later described their chat as an ‘uplifting conversation’ during a newsletter about the coronavirus.
For the DeClerck family, they say they postpone birthday celebrations until the pandemic is over.
In the meantime, Shawn says the whole family is ‘running out and going to get mason jars’ to fill with gin-soaked raisins, in an effort to ‘catch up’.
DeClerck isn’t the oldest person to survive the virus. The oldest known resident of Europe, Sister Andre, tested positive for the virus at the age of 116.
Andre is said to have celebrated her 117th birthday earlier this month with a glass of champagne in a nursing home in Toulon, in the south of France, after beating the virus.
DeClerck, meanwhile, said she counts every day after her fear of the coronavirus as a blessing.
‘I am very happy to be here. Thank you, Jesus, ”she told NJ.com.