103-year-old great-great-grandmother beats coronavirus, asks for a beer to celebrate
Jennie Stejna spent two weeks isolated in her Massachusetts nursing home battling COVID-19, her granddaughter, Shelley Gunn, told CBS News. When the 103-year-old woman recovered, she asked her caretakers for one thing: A Bud Light.
Staff at the nursing home obliged the centenarian's request and took a photo of her enjoying the beer, which has gone viral.
In an interview with local publication Wicked Local, Gunn described her grandmother as someone who "always had that feisty fighting spirit."
Stejna was the first person in her nursing home to test positive for coronavirus, Gunn told Wicked Local. Stejna became very ill, but there was always a staff member by her side.
Stejna has two children, three grandchildren, four great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren, Gunn said.
The family said their final goodbyes to the great-great-grandmother and when asked if she was ready to go to heaven, Stejna replied, "Hell yes."
But against all odds, Stejna beat the deadly virus, which disproportionately affects the elderly. On May 13, Gunn received news that her grandmother had recovered.
That's when Stejna asked for a Bud Light to celebrate, something she loved but hadn't had in a very long time, Gunn said.
"This feisty old Polish grandmother of ours officially beat the coronavirus," Gunn's husband, Adam, told Wicked Local.
"We're truly very thankful," Gunn said.
Stejna is not the only centenarian to beat the odds.
A "resilient" 104-year-old man recovered from the coronavirus in Oregon last month. William "Bill" Lapschies contracted the virus at the Edward C. Allworth Veterans' Home in Oregon, CBS affiliate KOIN reports. He first started showing symptoms on March 5 and been isolated in his room, but about one month later, he was considered recovered from COVID-19.
And in Spain, 113-year-old Maria Branyas, who is believed to be the oldest woman in the country, was able to beat coronavirus after being diagnosed with COVID-19 in March, BBC News reported.