On March 17, World War II veteran Bill Kelly tested positive for coronavirus. Today, he’s beaten the virus and added it to the list of things he’s survived throughout his life.
At 95 years old, Kelly has lived through the Great Depression and combat in the Pacific theater of World War II. The experiences helped shape Kelly’s defiant response, which was posted to Facebook: “I survived the foxholes of Guam, I can get through this coronavirus bull****.”
Rose Ayers-Etherington shared her grandfather’s handling of his coronavirus case. Kelly, an Oregon native, has also survived with underlying medical conditions like stage 3 kidney disease, congenital heart disease and high blood pressure.
Kelly was first hospitalized on March 15 with a fever and received his coronavirus diagnosis two days later. Kelly reportedly began feeling well enough to return home to self quarantine a day after his hospital visit. Ayers-Etherington wrote on March 21, that Kelly had reached six days with no fever and that his symptoms “have greatly subsided.” She added that he is “chipper and sassy as ever.”
Bill Kelly (Photo provided by Rose Ayers-Etherington)
According to The Oregonian, Kelly and four of his relatives, including Ayers-Etherington, had completed their two week quarantine period for the virus on Tuesday.
“He has seen tough times and knows how to get through them,” Ayers-Etherington wrote of Kelly’s advice through the quarantine. “His advice? Always be grateful. Thank God continually for what he has blessed you with. Don’t get caught up in the peripheral things of this earth, because everything can disappear just like that. Family is most important. Stick together, take care of each other.”
She wrote that one of Kelly’s other coping methods was “blasting that polka chicken dancing song from his room over and over again. Lord give us strength.”
Ayers-Etherington told American Military News that Kelly is “doing amazing. Up and about, whistling his old tunes and eating well.”
Bill Kelly (Photo provided by Rose Ayers-Etherington)
“We’re doing just fine here. We’re toughing it out.” Kelly told The Oregonian. “I’ve got two great-grandsons to keep me busy. I’ve been very fortunate.”
