A US woman has died after contracting coronavirus more than a century after her sister was killed by the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, according to local obituaries.
Selma Esther Ryan died in Austin, Texas, on April 14 due to Covid-19.
Her older sister Esther, whom she never met, died 102 years later from the deadliest global virus outbreak in modern history.
The 1918 pandemic infected 500million people worldwide, killing 50million, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Mrs Ryan died in an assisted living facility, where she had lived for the past three years.
Her daughter Vicki Spencer told local broadcaster WGN-TV that her mother and at least five other residents had been suffering high fevers on April 3.
“Over the next five days I watched through the window as she got sicker and sicker. It was so hard to not be with her,” Ms Spencer said.
She said her mother hadn’t been tested for coronavirus until after her death.
An obituary shared by American funeral home site Dignity Memorial describes the great-grandmother as the “epitome of a lovely lady.”
“She excelled in the game of Bridge, gardening, cooking, and many other things,” the tribute states.
“She created lovely works of art with counted cross stitching. At Barton Hills Assisted Living, where she lived the last three years of her life, she sang hymns with a lovely lady who came each week.
“She still had a beautiful voice.”
More than 164,000 people have so far died across the world owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The US remains the worst hit country, with more than 40,400 deaths confirmed to date.
