A 100-year-old Long Beach woman whose life began amid the fallout from the 1918 flu pandemic has been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus — and shortly before receiving the booster shot on Tuesday, Feb. 9, said she was eager to return to a semblance of normalcy.
Madeline Ryan, a Long Beach native, received the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine at Dignity Health – St. Mary Medical Center.
“Is it going to hurt?” Ryan asked her nurse before the shot was administered. “I don’t care.
“I feel,” she added, “like I’ve had a full-time job trying to stay sane the last year.”
Ryan was born in 1920, right at the end of the global flu pandemic that, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, killed more than 675,000 people in America and about 50 million worldwide. More than 463,000 people have died from coronavirus-related causes in the U.S., according to the CDC.
While she didn’t experience the 1918 pandemic, Ryan did say she had some memories of the lingering toll it took on those around her.
“I remember my parents crying; their friends (died) and their kids had no place to go,” Ryan said. “Relatives would try and split up the kids to take care of them after their parents would die.”
During the current pandemic, meanwhile, Ryan has been stuck at home just like millions of others around the country — not an easy thing for someone like her. Ryan said she’s an avid traveler who has visited dozens of other countries in her life, including Egypt, China, Thailand and, her favorite, Italy. The pandemic put a stop to her travels.
But now that Ryan has been fully vaccinated, the centenarian said, she doesn’t want to waste another second at home. Ryan said she would love to revisit Italy again soon.
(Public health officials have urged folks to continue following safety guidelines, such as mask-wearing and not gathering with those outside your household, even after they’ve been vaccinated because there is a lack of information about how long immunity lasts and whether an inoculated person can still spread the coronavirus.)
And to the people who are unsure about getting the vaccine, Ryan had a direct retort: “You’re not punching anybody but yourself,” she said.
“It’s the right thing to do,” Ryan added. “And I believe in science.”
While Long Beach has been vaccinating those at least 65 years old at city-run sites for nearly a month, Ryan was able to go to St. Mary Medical Center because of a connection — her daughter.
The hospital, which had already inoculated the majority of its frontline staff last month, wanted to continue helping out its workers. So twice a week, the Parr Health Enhancement Center, on the hospital’s campus, vaccinates the frontline workers’ family members who are at least 65 years old.
Ryan’s daughter, Nancy Hampton, is a St. Mary’s nurse.
“We’re lucky to live in a city like Long Beach, with its own health department,” said President Carolyn Caldwell. “Since we already vaccinated all of our frontline staff that wanted to be, we decided, ‘What if we extend this to the families of our frontline workers?’
“So many people need the vaccine,” Caldwell added. “And when you see someone like (Ryan) who has lived through two pandemics eager to get it, it helps to build that public trust for those still unsure about getting it.”
