Iris Nankivell celebrates 107th birthday, says she’s ‘not afraid’ of coronavirus
Iris Nankivell, 107, knows what it’s like to live through a pandemic — she remembers her parents hanging bed sheets soaked in antiseptic to ward off the Spanish flu in 1918. And it’s not the only life or death situation she’s survived.
Inner East
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Iris Nankivell recalls her parents hanging bed sheets soaked in antiseptic across the doorways of their family home during the deadly 1918 Spanish flu crisis.
Aged just five at the time, Mrs Nankivell survived one of the worst pandemics in human history that claimed the lives of tens of millions of people worldwide.
Now aged 107, Mrs Nankivell told the Leader through her niece Pamela Campbell she wasn’t afraid of COVID-19, despite the health risk of contracting the virus at her age.
Mrs Campbell said Mrs Nankivell laughed when she was told about the virus, and she said it didn’t stop her aunt from enjoying a quiet birthday party with family and staff at the mecwacare Noel Miller Centre in Glen Iris on March 23.
“Her attitude was, ‘Well, I’ve got to go at some point. If it’s going to be the coronavirus then so be it’,” Mrs Campbell said
“We had champagne (at her birthday) and a lovely birthday cake. She sat and had two cannoli, a huge piece of birthday cake and three glasses of champagne, so she did well.”
Mrs Nankivell said her secret to leading a long and happy life was lots of “laughter and sunshine”, as well as having a loving and supportive family.
Mrs Nankivell married husband Phillip in 1940. He died short after their 65th wedding anniversary in 2005. They didn’t have any children.
And Mrs Campbell said her aunt’s bravery was called upon at least one other time in her life when the ship she was sailing in to Australia was attacked by enemy forces during World War II.
“At one point her father who was English took the family back to England. We can’t remember why but he sent the family back to Australia … and she said she remembered while they were below deck they were being torpedoed and her mother said to her if they got hit they would have to go down together.”
These days however, Mrs Nankivell leads a much more sedate life at the Noel Miller Centre, and Mrs Campbell said her aunt was in great health and the family looked forward to celebrating her birthday again next year.
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