Marie Curie died in 1934 in her 50s. The page says it was published in a journal of April 2002.

If the editor “knew” Marie enough to have educated discussions with her on her deathbed (at least long enough to be “friends”), let’s say the editor was really young in their 20s, that would make the editor at the time of writing in their response in their late 80’s to early 90s… working hard at some subpar journal?

Without more detail, the editor’s response doesn’t pass the sniff test, and it sounds like they’re full of shit.