| Primetta Giacopini | |
 Primetta Giacopini celebrating her 100th birthday in 2016 with her daughter, Dorene | |
| Birth: | 9 June 1916 Torrington, Connecticut, USA |
| Death: | 16 September 2021 Richmond, California, USA |
| Age: | 105 years, 99 days |
| Country: |  USA
|
| Centenarian | |
Primetta Giacopini (9 June 1916 – 16 September 2021) was an American centenarian who, at the age of 105, was one of the oldest victims of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Giacopini was born on 9 June 1916 in Torrington, Connecticut, USA. She had a younger sister, Alice. Their mother, Pasquina Fei, died from Spanish Flu in 1918 aged 25. Their father did not want to raise them alone, so he sent Alice back to Italy, their ancestral homeland, and handed Primetta to an Italian foster family that later relocated to Italy in 1929.
Giacopini supported herself by working as a seamstress. When Italy entered World War II in June 1940, the local police warned her to leave because Mussolini wanted American citizens out of the country, but she refused. She fell in love with Vittorio Andriani, an Italian fighter pilot, but in June 1941, he went missing in action; Giacopini later learned that he had crashed and died near Malta. While he was missing, she joined a group of strangers making their way out of Italy on a train to Portugal, where she then boarded a ship to the USA.
Mid-Life and Marriage[]
Once back in the USA, Giacopini returned to Torrington, bought a Chevrolet sedan for $500, and landed a job at a General Motors plant in Bristol, Connecticut grinding steel to cover ball bearings for the war effort. She met her husband, Umbert “Bert” Giacopini, on the job. They were married from 1945 until he died in 2002. In 1960, she gave birth to a daughter, Dorene, who was born with spina bifida, a birth defect in which the spinal cord does not fully develop, and required crutches to walk. Worried that Dorene would slip during Connecticut’s winters, the family moved to San Jose, California in 1975.
Giacopini was an activist for her daughter before people with disabilities were protected by law. She had to convince school officials to move accelerated classes from the third floor of Dorene’s school to the first floor so Dorene could participate. During the springs in Connecticut, she demanded that city sweepers clear their street of salt and sand so Dorene would not slip. While a stay-at-home mother, Giacopini served as the Torrington chairwoman for the March of Dimes, a nonprofit organisation that was formed to fight polio.
Later Life and Death[]
In her later years, Giacopini lived in her own home in Richmond, California, with the help of a caregiver. She had a brief stint at a nursing facility, but was kicked out for not following the rules.
While visiting her home on 9 September 2021, Dorene Giacopini noticed her mother coughing in a way she had not before. She later tested positive for COVID-19, and despite being fully vaccinated, was hospitalised by 11 September. Her oxygen levels dropped steadily over the next few days, and she had to be sedated after fighting against hospital staff. Faced with a decision of whether to put her mother on a ventilator, Dorene decided against it. Primetta Giacopini died on 16 September 2021 at the age of 105 years, 99 days.
Gallery[]
References[]
- Woman who survived 1918 flu, world war succumbs to COVID at 105 Tampa Bay Times, 30 September 2021
- ‘She was a force of nature’ — Torrington woman dies at 105 from COVID-19 CT Post, 2 October 2021