Italy had one of the highest COVID-19 death tolls in Europe when the pandemic broke out. But while the number of cases is rising across the continent, the country so far seems to be avoiding a second wave.

Fatima Negrini was born in 1912, two years before WWI broke out. She has just celebrated her 108th birthday and so far she has survived COVID-19, which has taken the lives of 38,000 of her compatriots. She tested positive in April, though she didn’t show any symptoms. “I have basically always been a strong and healthy woman,” she said from the San Faustino care home in Milan.

Negrini said God must have forgotten her: “He didn’t call me to him. I’ve still got some good deeds to do, even though I’m in a wheelchair.”

“My family is also well,” she added, explaining that her sons, who are 79, 88 and 89 years old, were also healthy — as were her many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

But the lockdown earlier this year was tough, Negrini recalled because her family could not visit. “That was terrible.”