A recent photo taken of Rubena Wenzel. (submitted photo/Bev Smith)

By Nigel Maxwell

Feats of strength

‘After a week we thought gosh she’s gonna make it’: 106-year-old Prince Albert woman beats COVID-19

Dec 31, 2020 | 7:00 AM

In her lifetime, Prince Albert’s Rubena Wenzel has lived through world wars and now survived two pandemics, the Spanish flu in 1918 and COVID-19 in 2020.

Roughly two and a half weeks after her initial positive test, the 106-year-old successfully tested negative on Dec. 23. Wenzel, who lives at the Good Shepherd Villa retirement home, told paNOW she was not scared when she was initially given the news about her results.

“No, I didn’t think much about it,” she said with a laugh.

On Christmas Eve Wenzel was grateful to be able to speak to her family through FaceTime.

“It was nice to talk to them. I missed them,” she said.

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One of Wenzel’s four children, Beverly Smith who lives in Oklahoma City, felt a bit differently about the positive test results, when she received the phone call from the care home’s administrator.

“Being with her age of everything, it was a real feeling of doom because younger people have died, much less than someone who is 106,” she said.

Following the initial test result, Smith was talking to staff every day, and was told her mother’s temperature and oxygen never fluctuated.

“We were also kinda shocked because she wasn’t showing any symptoms at all,” she said. “After a week we thought ‘gosh she’s gonna make it.'”

A photo taken of Rubena at the time of her birthday celebration last May. (submitted photo/Bev Smith)

On Christmas Eve, when Smith spoke to her mother for the first time in weeks, she said she was amazed how great her mother looked, and how positive she remained despite all she went through.

“She’s 106 but she is healthy. She takes a Tylenol a day because she has a knee that swells,” Smith said with a laugh.

There were five positive cases connected to Good Shepherd Villa – three residents and two staff members, and all have since recovered. Administrator Pat Chuey told paNOW Wenzel was the first resident to test positive.

“When we went to do lockdown, she said ‘Why are you wearing a mask?’ and I said ‘Well you tested positive for COVID’ and she just sorta looked and me and said ‘I was there when they had the Spanish Flu too,'” Chuey said.

Wenzel’s many achievements include being named the special ambassador for Two Miles for Mary in 2013. The program provides free transportation for seniors. (file photo/paNOW Staff)

Reflecting back on the care home’s response to the COVID cases, Chuey said she believed the design of the homes played a key role in helping slow the spread, but added staff, who care deeply for all the residents did an incredible job. Chuey recalled the feeling of her own heart “sinking” when the news of Wenzel’s test result came in.

“You try to think positive but we just hoped and prayed everything would work out. She’s been with us a long time and everybody just loves her,” she said.

So when the official call came from the health authority weeks later, Chuey said the atmosphere in the entire long term care home was much different.

“We ran from house to house and the residents were all throwing their doors open. It was just unbelievable,” Chuey said. “I had a little cry”

Health Canada was unable to confirm if Wenzel was the oldest person in Canada to survive COVID. But according to the website, wikia.org, there have been two case of people who were 113, one in Mexico and the other from Argentina. The website also cited a woman from Alberta, who recovered just days before her 109th birthday.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxell