Ruby Holt spent most of her 100 years on a farm in rural Tennessee, picking cotton and raising four children. She never had the time or money to go to a beach because her farming family never was able to afford a trip to the coast, and she's left Tennessee only once before. Holt said she was always too busy on the farm or working in a shirt factory to travel.
That changed this month, just a few weeks shy of Holt's 101st birthday.
Thanks to a partnership between the Brookdale Senior Living Solutions where Holt lives and Wish of a Lifetime organization that grants wishes to the elderly, Holt got to see the ocean for the first time during an all-expenses-paid trip to the Gulf of Mexico.
Holt laughed and grinned as cool Gulf waters hit her feet for the first time, and she walked across the white sand with the help of aides from the home.
She said she'd never seen anything as big as the ocean. But in the November chill she kept saying over and over: "It's cold."
"I've heard people talk about it and how wonderful it was and wanted to see it, but I never had the opportunity to do so," Holt said.
Mark Davis, executive director of Brookdale's Sterling House, said two workers filled out the application for Holt after learning she'd never seen the ocean and wanted to go.
"They did a water gun fight out in the courtyard during the summer and water got brought up, the beach, and that's what she told the girls, that she had never been," he said.
Debbie Surgeon and Tracy Marcy helped fill out the application, and Holt's wish was granted in early November. The trip was planned as soon as possible because Holt turns 101 on Dec. 13.
"When we got to the room yesterday she was just pointing out the ocean and, you know, her facial expressions and ... she was just speechless," Davis said.
Using a donated motorized wheelchair, which had fat tires to roll over sand, Holt stood up at the edge of the water with the help of Surgeon and Marcy.
Credit: AP
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