Making it through at 102: meet Muriel, Alberta’s oldest COVID-19 survivor

Muriel McInnes is a real survivor, recovering from COVID-19 at the age of 102.

According to Alberta Health Services, that makes her the oldest Albertan to survive COVID-19.

Muriel tested positive for the novel coronavirus in May. She made it through without too many problems — a minor fever, no body aches, not much coughing.

“It’s unbelievable!” Muriel’s daughter Alison McInnes said.

“I’m just so grateful and thrilled to see her. And she’s looking great.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I'm just so grateful and thrilled to see her. And she's looking great."

Muriel is a resident of the Chinook Care Centre, a continuing-care facility in southwest Calgary. She is one of 25 residents in the facility to test positive for COVID-19.

“Currently, we are COVID-free,” Chinook Care Centre administrator Lorraine Nygard said. “Our outbreak was declared over yesterday, so we’re all very pleased.”

1:25 Residents of Alberta continuing care centres without COVID-19 symptoms allowed visitor outside

Nygard says Muriel is in good company at the care home.

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“We’ve had several residents (aged) 100 or more that have recovered,” Nygard said.

“They lived through the hard times, the Dirty Thirties and the wars, and I think they’ve got the fight in them.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "They lived through the hard times, the Dirty Thirties and the wars, and I think they've got the fight in them."

Muriel was able to go outside the facility for the first time in more than three months on Friday, visiting with her daughter for the first time since pandemic restrictions began in mid-March.

Alison brought along a T-shirt she’d had made for her mother, which reads: “I survived the Spanish Flu and COVID-19.”

“You were just a baby when the Spanish Flu started,” Alison told her mother.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "You were just a baby when the Spanish Flu started," Alison told her mother.

“You did live through it, in Manitoba, in a farmhouse just outside of Portage la Prairie.

“And then, here today, you’ve survived the COVID, which is even more amazing, so we’re very proud of you. You did well.”

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