Esperanza Carpio, a 105-year-old Rosemead resident, has now lived through two pandemics: first, the Spanish flu when she was about 3 and now again in the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It feels good!" Carpio said after she got her second dose of the Pfizer COVID vaccine at PIH Health Whittier Hospital Friday.
After she and her daughter Irene, who's 85, and her caretaker and great niece Suzie Sharp all got vaccinated, she said she has aspirations of having a big party to see all the extended family and great-great-grand children she's missed during the pandemic.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
"Keeping everyone away from them has been really tough," Sharp said. "Were a hugging kind of family and it doesn't exist anymore except for the three of us, of course."
Aside from keeping Carpio isolated, it's also been difficult for her after her dog, a Yorkie, died. She got another dog, to help with her loneliness.
She and her family are all excited for when immunity kicks in, and gatherings are possible.
For about a year now, she's been in isolation, only seeing some relatives from the yard.
"Sometimes after they leave she would say, 'why didn’t they come in?' She questions that a little bit. It's kind of sad. She wonders why they’re not coming up and hugging her like they normally do," Sharp said.
Her family said she's had no negative side effects from the vaccine.
