When the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a standstill and forced many into isolation, fearing for their lives, there was a woman over a century old who refused to let the deadly virus dampen her spirits.
Gulten Saruhan, a 108-year-old woman from Türkiye’s Rize province, contracted COVID-19 three years ago. Despite the severity of her case, doctors were astonished when she recovered without needing intensive care and rolled out of the hospital on her own.
“The doctors were all amazed. There is nothing wrong with my mother’s health,” her daughter, Sunay Balikci, shared with Ihlas News Agency. Saruhan even insisted on using a wheelchair so she could explore the village independently.
Saruhan, who now lives without serious illness or medication, continues to astonish those around her with her cheerful demeanor and casual discussions about the hardships she’s faced in life, said her daughter, Balikci, who is 65 years old.
As a young girl, Saruhan moved from Erzurum to Rize after her mother passed away, and another family took her in. She spent many years with them before marrying and having four children of her own.
“Everyone deeply loved me and I have come this far despite growing up as an orphan. I endured a lot of hunger when I was young. I never knew my mother, only my father.”
“After my mother died, my father carried me to the city on his back. We stayed in inns at night, and along the way, he would ask for bread from others,” Saruhan recounted.
A family eventually took them in and became Saruhan’s guardians. “But they were not like my own parents. I grew up as an orphan,” she reflected.
These days, Saruhan enjoys spending her free time knitting socks from the comfort of her bed.
I am an experienced writer, analyst, and author. My exposure in English journalism spans more than 28 years. In the past, I have been working with daily The Muslim (Lahore Bureau), daily Business Recorder (Lahore/Islamabad Bureaus), Daily Times, Islamabad, daily The Nation (Lahore and Karachi). With daily The Nation, I have served as Resident Editor, Karachi. Since 2009, I have been working as a Freelance Writer/Editor for American organizations.
