Two sisters die a century apart, both from global pandemics

Selma Esther Ryan, 96, passed away on April 14, and was one of five residents who had contracted the coronavirus while living in an assisted living home in Austin Texas.

By CELIA JEAN
An elderly woman sits in the recreation room of a retirement home as visits have been restricted due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) concerns in Grevenbroich (photo credit: REUTERS)
An elderly woman sits in the recreation room of a retirement home as visits have been restricted due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) concerns in Grevenbroich
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Two sisters in the US fell victim to a global pandemic, with the only difference between them is that while one died during the current coronavirus outbreak, the other died over a century ago during the Spanish Flu outbreak, according to the Miami Herald.
Selma Esther Ryan, 96, passed away on April 14, and was one of five residents who had contracted the coronavirus while living in an assisted living home in Austin Texas, Her daughter, Vicki Spencer, told American TV station KXAN.
"Over the next five days I watched through the window as she got sicker and sicker,” Spencer said, adding that it was hard not being able to be with her mother to celebrate her birthday, which fell just three days before her death. 
"Our family gathered outside her window, but it was obvious that something terrible had happened to her," Spencer said.
According to the Miami Herald, Ryan's obituary states that her middle name is the same as first name of her sister, Esther, who was just five years old when she passed away in 1918, as one of 50 million to succumb to the Spanish Influenza.