Orland Park woman, Kay Lukasick, celebrates 100th birthday after surviving COVID

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A lifelong Chicago area woman celebrated her 100th birthday on Monday, and she said she thought she may never see such a day.

Catherine Lukasick, Kay for short, invited CBS 2's Marissa Perlman to the party to share her secret for longevity.

Popcorn, balloons, and 100 birthday candles were prepared for the big party in Orland Park. Lukasick is known around the Brookdale Senior Living Community as feisty, independent, and a woman who knows what she wants and isn't afraid to say it.

"I almost called this off," she said.

Lukasick is most proud of her big Chicago family.

"You wouldn't have room big enough to put my family in," she said.

A centennial birthday is a big deal on its own. But after two years of surviving the COVID-19 pandemic, this day was one of celebration for the entire retirement community.

"It's a wonderful day that everybody can sit here with love and care with a 100-year-old lady," one woman in attendance said.

And on this day, age is something to celebrate. Many other Brookdale residents are 90 or older too.

But it is also a day that almost didn't happen for Lukasick.

"I didn't think I'd make it," she said. "I really didn't."

Lukasick got sick with COVID-19 in late 2021. She was isolated from her family and friends in the retirement home and was in the hospital for weeks.

"I didn't see nobody," she said.

Like many who got sick, Lukasick's nurses stepped in when family couldn't.

"We were all they had," said Gravina Lipson, LPN, the lead nurse at Brookdale. "She fought through it, so that tells you how strong she is."

Today, Lukasick said she can have her cake – and she's eating it too. And the Brookdale community can celebrate getting back to life.

Lukasick grew up on Morgan Street in Englewood during the Depression. She has eight grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren.

The year Lukasick was born, Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect." Meanwhile, gas was a mere 11 cents a gallon.