A 108-year-old woman from New Jersey has recovered from the coronavirus, and could be the country’s oldest Covid-19 survivor.
During her 108-years, Sylvia Goldsholl has lived through both the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, and now the Covid-19 pandemic, over 100 years apart.
Goldsholl is not quite the oldest reported person to have recovered from the coronavirus. A 113-year-old woman in Spain, also originally from the U.S., was reported to have recovered on Tuesday.
‘I survived everything because I was determined to survive,’ Goldsholl said in an interview conducted over video chat with News 12 New Jersey last week.
Goldsholl, who has recovered fully from Covid-19 having battled with it for a couple of weeks, has lived in a nursing home in Allendale, New Jersey since 2010.
She was moved to an isolation wing at the care home when she was diagnosed.
Sylvia Goldsholl celebrates her 108th birthday shortly before she was diagnosed with the coronavirus. She has since made a full recovery
New Jersey’s governor Phil Murphy announced the news of Goldsholl’s recovery in a press conference on Thursday.
Later, he tweeted: ‘Sylvia Goldscholl is 108 years old. Last month, she tested positive for COVID19 and has beaten it.
‘A tremendous life, a tremendous spirit, and a tremendous show of strength. So, to you, Sylvia, we send you all our best for many more years to come,’ he wrote.
Goldscholl was born on December 29, 1911. When she was just seven years old, the Spanish Flu took hold of the globe and saw an estimated 50 million people succumb to the virus.
Today, over 300,000 people have now died of Covid-19, which is particularly harmful to anyone over the age of 70 making her recovery even more remarkable.
Goldscholl originally lived in the Bronx in New York, living in the apartment in which she grew up for most of her life, before she moved to New Jersey 20 years ago.
News 12 reported that she didn’t particularly want to talk about the coronavirus when she was interviewed, but was willing to reminisce about her family.
‘The oldest of four children and I was the smartest one from the bunch,’ she said. ‘I am a survivor. I’ve got to come out on the top of every list.’
‘They knew that I was a wonder,’ she said of her family to NorthJersey.com. ‘I met their expectations. I represented them in a very well way.’
When interviewed by News 12 New Jersey, she said that she was a ‘survivor’, which is particularly true considering she has now survived through both the Covid-19 and Spanish flu pandemics
Goldsholl never married or had kids of her own, but her niece, Nancy Chazen, told the news website that Goldsholl loves her family, and said that she planned to visit her aunt once the pandemic is over.
‘She always wanted to have family parties,’ Chazen said. ‘She thought it was important to stay in touch with the family.’
Chazen also said that Goldsholl had a ‘reputation for being an advocate’ saying that she used to write letters to government officials about issues she cared about.
One issue in particular Goldholl emphasized was the importance of education, saying: ‘My mom was educated in Russia. She wanted very much to be knowledgeable.
‘My father came from a very high-class background. I made the best of both. ‘I’m glad I’m where I am,’ the 108-year-old added.
In a post on its Facebook page, staff at the care home wrote: ‘Our own, Sylvia Goldsholl has become a media darling, grabbing headlines on local TV and print.
‘Her story of survival at 108 years of age made the front page of today’s Record. Not a shy one, Sylvia is a delight for interviewers. During such tough times Sylvia, is a model of positive perseverance. Congratulations Sylvia!’
At the time, News 12 reported that Goldsholl could be the oldest person anywhere to have survived the coronavirus, however, a 113-year-old woman in Spain, also originally from the U.S., has since been reported to have recovered on Tuesday.
Maria Branyas, 113, is likely to be the world’s oldest person to have survived the coronavirus after catching it in April and later testing negative
Maria Branyas, a mother-of-three, survived COVID-19 whilst in the Santa Maria del Tura care home where she lives in the city of Olot, eastern Spain.
Branyas was originally born in San Fransisco in the United States on March 4, 1907, before she moved with her family to Spain in 1915.
She then lived in the Spanish cities of Barcelona, Banyoles, Girona, Calonge i Sant Antoni and Palol de Revardit (all of them in the Catalonia region), and has been a resident in the care home for two decades.
Like Goldsholl, Branyas lived through the Spanish flu pandemic that swept the world in 1918, but also was in Europe during World War I (1914 – 1918) and World War II (1939 – 1945), as well as the Spanish civil war between 1936 and 1939.