Grandma who beat Spanish flu also recovers from COVID-19 — in time for 107th birthday

Frances Abbracciamento. Image: Facebook/@AssemblywomanStaceyPhefferAmato

A grandmother from New York City, United States has fully recovered from COVID-19, just in time to mark her 107th birthday this week.

The 106-year-old Frances Abbracciamento caught a cold in late March and was diagnosed with pneumonia. This was later on identified as the new coronavirus disease, New York Daily News reported last Monday, May 4.

Abbracciamento’s daughter, Alda Spina, said they really thought they were going to lose their mother. Much to her family’s delight, Abbracciamento made a near-full recovery by the end of April. It was only then that her family learned that what she survived was COVID-19.

Abbracciamento plans to spend her special day this Saturday, May 9 at her home in Breezy Point, Queens. According to the report, the grandma is also looking forward to eating spaghetti topped with her son-in-law’s Bolognese sauce.

“Everyone needs to be grateful and count their blessings every day,” Abbracciamento was quoted as saying.

Spina said that she was not surprised by her mother’s “miraculous recovery” especially since Abbracciamento also conquered the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918 and a hip and shoulder injury at the age of 101.

Abbracciamento is a daughter of Italian immigrants in New York City. The matriarch has four children, nine grandkids and 15 great-grandchildren. Cha Lino/JB

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