AP reporter Todd Richmond told the exclusive story of a 105-year-old California woman who died from COVID-19 — she was a toddler when her mother died in the 1918 flu pandemic.
Photos of Primetta Giacopini are displayed with a birthday card from President Joe Biden in Richmond, Calif., Sept 27, 2021. Eleven days earlier, Giacopini, 105, had died of COVID-19. She lost her own mother in the flu pandemic of 1918.
AP Photo / Josh Edelson
Acting on a tip about the story from entertainment/lifestyles editor Julie Rubin, Richmond chronicled Primetta Giacopini’s rich life story with video journalist Haven Daley and freelance photographer Josh Edelson, including an interview with Giacopini's daughter in the Bay Area. Giacopini lost her fighter pilot husband in World War II, barely escaped wartime Europe, ground steel for the U.S. war effort and advocated for her disabled daughter in a far less enlightened time.
The all-formats story resonated with audiences online, in print and in broadcast. ”My grandmother and mother, the only thing that could kill them was a worldwide pandemic,” her daughter told the AP.