‘‘Here’s to strong women: may we know them, may we be them, may we raise them.”

One of the oldest residents in San Francisco, as well as the oldest person in California, Lucy Mirigian, has died on the morning of February 12th,2021 in Fresno, California at the age of 114. She died in her sleep. This avid Giants fan with the most incredible biography has died surrounded by her family. The cause – old age.

Lucy Mirigian has had a lot happened to her from the moment she left her home country-Armenia. When she was just four years old, she left Armenia ”on the back of a donkey”. Back then her name was Lucy Sarkisian, a daughter of Kevork and Altoun Sarkisian who fled for the United States just before the Armenian Genocide.

In her life, Lucy survived four pandemics- The Spanish flu pandemic in 1918, polio, and the typhoid epidemics of the 1930s and 1940s. And it seemed that Lucy Mirigian managed to stubbornly cheat the Covid-19 pandemic and die of old age, despite all odds. According to her daughter, Sonia Mirigian-Koujakian, she wasn’t sick, she was just really old.

A woman who had a full and rich life, loved puzzles and wine, occasionally bemoaning the state of the Union had a few words to say on what to do during the pandemic.

But even though she lived a long and fulfilled life, she was almost robbed of a few years of her life and by none other than the federal government. In 2017 the federal government decided that she was dead and took away her well-deserved $377-a-month government pension she earned by working at the U.S. Mint in San Francisco.

The government claimed they sent out letters to Lucy, but she, still clear-minded and functioning really well for her age, said she never received any letters.

Now the really best ones, the medal-earning ones know when to stop and know that behind every lie stands a lot of truth – that’s what makes it a good lie.

Lately thou, her failing eyesight made it difficult for her to enjoy the Giants matches, but her daughter was happy to move the TV closer to Lucy and give her a play-by-play of the game.

Still, Lucy Mirigian only showed defeat to her age when she switched the 500-piece jigsaws for 60-piece jigsaws, which she usually solved with a glass of wine nearby. This curious centenarian was buried at the Ararat Armenian Cemetery of Fresno.

People