Back on form: Glamorous centenarian fights off Covid-19
Three weeks after diagnosis, the pensioner is back to normal
All smiles: Josephine Silo (103) celebrates with Sister Stella and her health care assistant Joanne Dillon Radburn in the Sacred Heart nursing home, Raheny, Dublin, after making a full recovery from coronavirus.
DUBLINER Josephine Silo has made a remarkable recovery from Covid-19 at the age of 103.
She tested positive for the coronavirus, but has since made a full recovery much to the delight of everyone at the Sacred Heart Residence on Sybil Hill Road, Raheny, where she is a popular resident.
Ms Silo said she was diagnosed with the virus around three weeks ago.
“I was coughing. I didn’t feel good. But I wasn’t breathless, that didn’t affect me,” she told the Irish Independent.
“The cough was a bit irritating that’s all.”
She said a medic came into the home and she was tested for Covid-19, and her own doctor also came to check up on her.
She was in bed a couple of days. “I didn’t feel myself, but other than that I wasn’t too bad,” she said.
The pensioner was in isolation while she recovered from the virus at the home where she has been living for nearly a year now.
But despite her age, she said she wasn’t worried about the diagnosis as she didn’t feel that bad.
However, she agreed her story shows it is possible to recover from Covid-19 at her age and that this could offer hope to others who are diagnosed with it.
“I’m all right now. I’m feeling pretty good,” she said, adding she was very happy to be recovered.
She said she didn’t have to go to hospital for treatment. Her doctor gave her tablets, so she said that apparently she didn’t get one of the worse cases of the coronavirus.
Overall, she has good health, adding: “I’m able to walk and eat a little.”
She said her father, who was Italian, died quite young, but her mother was in her 80s when she passed away. However, she contributes some of her longevity to the fact that she worked as a waitress from the age of 14 until about the age of 60 on Grafton Street, which meant she was very fit and healthy.
“But that is a good few years ago now,” she said.
Originally from Rathmines, she revealed she would be turning 104 on July 22.
Ms Silo said she kept up her interest in current affairs. She said: “I’m interested in what’s going on in the world.”
She has nieces, one of whom lives locally, which is how she ended up moving from the southside to the northside of the city.
“I’m not married, I never married,” added Ms Silo, who got over the illness quickly enough, and said the test itself for Covid-19 was “all right”.
Glamorous
She is known for being glamorous. Ms Silo still likes to wear lipstick, which she has worn since she was a young woman.
“When I’m going anywhere, I want to look well,” she said.
She added that she had received good care at the Raheny home. Sr Anne, director of nursing at the home said: “We are delighted to see her well again.”
“She wasn’t her usual self,” she said about the period when Ms Silo, who is cheery and popular, was sick.
The nursing home is run by Little Sisters of the Poor, and it is registered for 86 residents. There are no cases of Covid-19 in the home at the moment.