A 105-year-old California woman who survived the Spanish flu and World War II has died of COVID-19.
On Sept. 16, after a life of adventure, Primetta Giacopini lost her final battle to COVID-19.
Primetta was born in the United States in 1916, two years before the Spanish flu pandemic. In her 105 years of life she fell in love with a World War II fighter pilot, escaped Benito Mussolini's fascist Europe, grinded steel for the U.S. war effort and advocated for her disabled daughter. As her 61-year-old daughter Dorene Giacopini described her, Primetta was not someone who made a habit out of giving up.
"I think my mother would have been around quite a bit longer if she hadn't contracted COVID-19," Dorene said. "She was a fighter. She had a hard life and her attitude always was: all Americans who were not around for World War II were basically spoiled brats."
On her last visit with her mother, Dorene noticed that Primetta was coughing. Her mother’s caretaker had been feeling sick after her husband returned from a trip to Idaho and despite all three being vaccinated, a breakthrough case occurred. Primetta died seven days later.
"I'm reminding myself that she was 105," Dorene said. "We always talk about my grandmother and mother, the only thing that could kill them was a worldwide pandemic."
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