STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — Lucile Ransom has been through a lot in her life.
As a little girl, she lived through the 1918 pandemic and she was married during the depression. She has also suffered the loss of a child, recovered from two broken hips and survived breast cancer at age 80.
2020 can’t stop her.
Ransom, who lives at Casey’s Pond Retirement Community in Steamboat Springs, is now 103 years old and survived COVID-19.
Ransom is the oldest resident living at her retirement community, which you’d think would make becoming infected with the virus pretty scary, but her daughter, Sheryl Henningfield, said, “She didn't seem fearful about it.”
In fact, Henningfield said her mom wasn’t even fully aware that she had COVID. Fortunately, her only symptoms were a cough and some aches and she has made a full recovery.
Henningfield thinks that the fact Ransom has been through so much has helped her overcome the virus and not think much about it.
“She's been through a lot before she even got COVID,” Henningfield said. “I think her emotional strength seems to get her through a lot of things. She doesn't always understand how she's lived so long, but she just keeps going.”
While Ransom may be the oldest in her retirement community, she doesn’t act like it.
Melissa Lahay, director of sales and marketing at Casey’s Pond, said that ransom took a fun ride on a slip-and-slide for her 102nd birthday.
Lahay said they asked residents how they wanted to be remembered and Ransom said, “I want to be remembered as a person who worked on a farm and ran a restaurant.”
“She is an inspiration to so many people,” Henningfield said. “When I get older I want to set that kind of an example, as to what you can get through, even at that age.”
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