This 105-Year-Old Woman Eats Nine Gin-Soaked Raisins a Day

Lucia DeClerck, 105, has an unexpected tool in her wellness arsenal that she swears by: soaking a jar full of raisins in gin. “Nine raisins a day after it sits for nine days,” she recently told The New York Times. 

The oldest resident in her New Jersey nursing home, DeClerck tested positive for coronavirus just one day after receiving her second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the home’s administrator told NYT. DeClerck reportedly isolated for two weeks after testing positive but showed few symptoms and was soon back in her room wearing her “trademark sunglasses and knit hat.”

Of course, the gin-and-raisins recipe is just one step of DeClerck’s healthy-living regimen. On top of drinking aloe juice straight from the container and brushing her teeth with baking soda, DeClerck offers these bits of advice: “Prayer. Prayer. Prayer. One step at a time. No junk food.”

Even her grandkids are coming around to her way of thinking. “We would just think, Grandma, what are you doing? You’re crazy,” DeClerck’s granddaughter Shawn Laws O’Neil told the NYT. “Now the laugh is on us. She has beaten everything that’s come her way.”

As heartwarming as this story is, it’s more important than ever to listen to the Centers for Disease Control and scientists for the best ways to protect yourself against the pandemic that has taken more than 500,000 American lives so far.

Aside from making sure to get the coronavirus vaccine once it becomes available to you, scientists now recommend double-masking whenever possible. “Doubling up or pairing a washable cloth mask layer with an overlying disposable surgical mask has a few benefits of comfort, reusability, and being an effective viral barrier,” Kathleen Jordan, M.D., senior vice president of medical affairs at the women’s health provider Tia, told Glamour. 

According to the CDC (per The New York Times), “Transmission of the virus can be reduced by up to 96.5% if both an infected individual and an uninfected individual wear tightly fitted surgical masks or a cloth-and-surgical-mask combination.”  

Moral of the story: Wear your masks, get vaccinated, and listen to your grandma.