New Mexico woman, 105, who beat 1918 flu, has coronavirus

GALLUP, New Mexico — A 105-year-old New Mexico woman who beat back the 1918 flu that killed millions, including her mother and infant sister, is now battling Covid-19.

The Gallup Independent reports Lubica “Luby” Grenko, who will turn 106 years old in August, has been fighting the coronavirus since being diagnosed April 29 at the Little Sisters of the Poor in Gallup.

The Gallup-born Grenko was born when World War I began, then she survived the 1918 flu before enduring the Great Depression and World War II.

The flu took the lives of her mother, Marijeta Kauzlaric, 28, and younger sister, Annie Kauzlaric, 1 month old.

Grenko’s granddaughter Misty Tolson says her grandmother remembers her mother going into the hospital and never coming out.

Tolson says she doesn’t think her grandma understands the current virus because she told one of the aides who walked in with protective gear on, “What the heck do you have on?”