Cheers and rounds of applause from the staff at Orange Park Medical Center filled the hallways Thursday as Nancy Garrett was rolled out of her hospital room for the last time.
"I've been in this room for 23 days. I think I own it by now," Garrett jokingly said.
A sense of humor has kept the 88-year-old Clay County woman going for the last three weeks.
She came to the hospital, where she's also served as a volunteer for 25 years, after feeling extremely nauseated.
"They put me in a room and they said you have bilateral pneumonia," she said. "I said pneumonia?"
But, tests would later show, her body was actually fighting COVID-19.
"I never lost hope," she said. "I never thought negative. I knew I was just sick and that I was going to get better."
The retired pediatric nurse says it was her will to live and prayer that got her to this moment.
"So many people that I don't even know have prayed me through this," she said. "I'm looking outside right now and the sun is shining and it's a beautiful day in Orange Park, Florida."
Garrett is now on her way to Brooks Rehabilitation to continue her recovery.
"I'm going to cross that river and I'm going to be looking all around and thanking God for being able to make that trip today," she said.