Story By: Alex Cope, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
This is the moment a 93-year-old woman dances around her living room as she has been doing every day in Spain’s coronavirus lockdown as a message of “life and spirit”.
Juana Calle Serrano lives in the city of Segovia located in the province with the same name located in the autonomous community of Castile and Leon in central Spain.
She recently turned 93 yet despite the advanced age she spends her lockdown by listening to ‘Radio Segovia’ every day and dancing with her daughters.
The videos show the moment Calle Serrano dances alongside her daughters. In one she is seen moving to the popular 70s song ‘I Will Survive’ by Gloria Gaynor.
In another, she moves around her living room while waving her hands to a Spanish song. A third video shows the 93-year-old reaching all the way down to her toes while music plays in the background.
Her son Jesus told Newsflash: “Juanita (Juana’s nickname) has always been very lively. Life has been tough on her. She has always surpassed losses and moved forward.”
Calle Serrano suffered the loss of her husband when she was 47 leaving her with five kids aged between eight and 15 while suffering from a serious hip injury. She also lost her sister and most recently her oldest son.
Her son added: “Juanita doesn’t like fame or popularity in the slightest. She was very reluctant to appear in the media,
“She only agreed to open her door to the general public when she understood the positive message of life and spirit she offers with the way she is facing this situation could be beneficial.”
He went on to say “she always liked dancing but” only started “now, in her later years, despite her prosthetic hip and doesn’t miss an opportunity when the party permits”.
She enjoys moving to the beat of any genre but “during this lockdown, Spanish music, Bollywood dances or Gloria Gaynor.”
When speaking about Calle Serrano’s life, her grandson said: “She especially remembers the Spanish Civil War. She was in Segovia’s Main Square when she saw at eight years old military trucks arriving and soldiers coming out of them.
“She also remembers her mother telling her about how difficult it was when the Spanish flu hit Coca where her mother was from.”
As for the quarantine, he assured Newsflash “she is taking the lockdown much better than we expected” as she “loves going out” but was “very shocked” when doctors “with protective suits” went to a neighbour’s house who “potentially had coronavirus.”
The older woman “has a pulmonary disease” so she is “extremely careful” and as the Spanish lockdown slowly starts to de-escalate, she is “not planning on leaving her house”.
Calle Serrano recently travelled to London, Dublin, and last September went to Paris, which was “the city she wanted to see most in the world” going to “the highest point of the Eiffel Tower”.
According to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University, Spain has reported 213,435 cases of COVID-19 and 24,543 deaths.
