NEW YORK, United States (AP) — A Long Island man whose twin brother died during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic has died from the novel coronavirus disease.

Philip Kahn, a decorated World War II Air Force veteran, died on April 17 from COVID-19 at the age of 100. Kahn’s twin brother, Samuel, died weeks after their birth in 1919 in one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, WLNY-TV has reported.

“He always had a motto that history will always repeat itself, and he knew that there was possibility of a pandemic again,” said Warren Zysman, Kahn’s grandson. “The one silver lining is that my grandfather will finally have the opportunity to meet his twin brother after 100 years.”

Kahn’s granddaughter, Dr Corey Karlin-Zysman, said that losing his twin to a pandemic had significantly affected her grandfather.

“He was completely with it at the end,” she said. “He knew what was going on, and he definitely put two and two together and saw the irony in this.”