America’s Oldest Patient to Recover from COVID-19 is Almost Ready to Dance
Rudi turned 107 Wednesday, is recovering from having COVID-19 and gets to sleep in his own bed tonight at the Village Care Center in Chesterfield. And Rudi has the distinction of being the oldest American to have survived COVID-19. He’s had an outpouring of love and support from family members, got to have some of his favorite lemon meringue pie and even got to be interviewed for a television spot on KSDK Channel 5. We didn’t get a chance to chat with Rudi as he resting from an exciting day, but his granddaughter Janet Heider from near Seattle was very excited to share some glowing words about Rudi. “He’s amazing,” said Heider. She said she told him “You have lived through the Spanish Flu, two World Wars, survived a stroke at 100 years old, recovered from a bad fall with fractured vertebrae at 104 years old and now you have beat COVID-19. I told him ‘God has plans for you.’ I told him ‘You’ve overcome so much’, so you’re not done yet.” Rudi is a man on the move with more living to do and proof that you can’t keep a good man down. At 104, Rudi learned to ballroom dance for his girlfriend who also lives at Friendship Village Chesterfield. “He’s so loving, intelligent and strong,” Heider said. Heider said she talked to Rudi recently when he was starting to lose hope. “When he told me he wanted to die, I made him promise to call me (if he felt like he was going to pass away) because I told him I would get on a plane to hold his hand when he died because, he didn’t want to die alone. Well, today is a new day. And Rudi has to wait a little longer until he can hold his granddaughter’s hand in CELEBRATION, but he’s getting stronger every day. When Karen visits, she always sings You are My Sunshine through the door before she even knocks. He calls her his “Sunshine.” We can’t wait for day of that very special visit when Rudy gets to hug his “Sunshine.”
Posted by Friendship Village STL on Wednesday, April 29, 2020
