"I knew that I was leaving": 90-year-old coronavirus survivor shares her story
One of the first major coronavirus outbreaks in the U.S. was inside a nursing home near Seattle. At least 39 people died at the Life Care Center of Kirkland.
Geneva Wood has lived a long and feisty life. The 90-year-old mother, grandmother and great-grandmother has lived through wars and recessions — but she nearly died from coronavirus.
"I didn't wanna eat," she said. "I didn't eat from Monday till Friday!"
Wood's daughter, Cami Neidigh, said she thought her mother's diagnosis was a "death sentence," given her age. Doctors agreed — they said she wasn't going to make it.
"By the next day, we were in there saying goodbyes," Neidigh said. She told CBS News that she told her mother, "You fought a hard battle."
"I knew that I was leaving," Wood said when asked what she told her family. "But I was leaving with peace and that I wanted them to know that I loved them and enjoyed them."
But Wood said that prayer — and a cup of soup from her children — helped her recover.
"Well, potato soup. You know, all my life whenever I got sick all I wanted was potato soup," she said.
Now, she's back home in a place she calls "Heaven on Earth."
"It's super great to be able to reach out and touch my kids and give them a hug or give them a kick!" she said with a laugh.
