Ora Smith was born the same year that a deadly infection overtook the country and turned life upside down.
The 102-year-old was born in 1918, when a deadly strain of influenza plagued the US and led to over 675,000 deaths in the country.
So when one of the most pivotal elections of her lifetime fell during the second pandemic of her lifetime, Ora didn’t think twice about casting her vote.
To maximize her safety, she submitted her absentee ballot at an in-person ballot box this month in Hampton, South Carolina.
Dr. Quentin Youmans was so inspired by his 102-year-old great aunt that he tweeted photos of her, bundled up in a trench coat and head scarf, with her absentee ballot in one hand and a disposable face mask in the other.
“If she can do it, you can too!” wrote Youmans, a cardiology fellow at Northwestern Medicine.
With this much on the line, Ora wouldn’t have missed it. And she was still able to vote with her health and safety in mind, Youmans said.
Ora says it’s an ‘enjoyment’ to vote
Ora told CNN it’s an “enjoyment to go vote,” but she voted absentee this year for her safety — older adults are more likely to become severely ill if they’re infected with Covid-19.
“Well, I think we need to change presidents, for one,” she said. “So I voted for this man (Biden). I hope he does a good job.”
A staunch supporter of former President Barack Obama, Ora said she doesn’t like the way President Donald Trump has led the country during his time in office.
“Things were pretty good until this other man got there,” she said. “It looks like he wants things to go back to Hoover times,” a reference to the Great Depression when millions of Americans struggled to find work and poverty was widespread.
“We don’t want that to come back to the generation coming now,” she said. “That’s why I’m so happy if this puts Trump out.”
Youmans said his great aunt is an inspiration
Youmans explained why Ora’s vote was especially significant: A lifelong resident of the Deep South, Ora’s grandmother had been enslaved.
Ora was in her late 40s when the Civil Rights Act finally passed and outlawed segregation, though she lived in a state where poll taxes and other tools of voter suppression attempted to keep Black voters out.
Ora remained steadfast in her commitment to voting then as she does now, something Youmans said inspires him.
“To think she was born the year of the last pandemic, and now here we are going through another pandemic, and she still got up and made sure her voice was heard,” he said. “It was something I hoped to share with the world.”
The photos of Ora have already reached former residents of the White House. Since Youmans tweeted the photos on Wednesday, thousands of Twitter users have seen Ora pose with her ballot — including Obama, who quipped that “102 never looked better.”
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