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A pair of sisters have died from two separate global pandemics, over a century apart, according to a report on Friday.
Selma Esther Ryan died Tuesday from the coronavirus at an assisted living facility in Austin, Texas, three days after celebrating her 96th birthday. Her death comes after her older sister, Esther – whom she never met – died at the age of 5 during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.
“On April 3, I got a call from the facility that five residents, including my mother, were running a temperature,” Ryan’s daughter, Vicki, told Austin’s KXAN-TV.
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“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. Her 96th birthday was April 11. Our family gathered outside her window, but it was obvious that something terrible had happened.”
Vicki said the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed Ryan had tested positive for the virus following her death, the station reported.
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The Span