100-year-old Tennessee woman sees the ocean for the first time

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Earlier this month, Ruby Holt got to see the ocean for the first time.

In a few weeks, she’ll turn 101.

Holt, who spent most of her life on a farm in Giles County, Tennessee, had always wanted to see the ocean, but she never had the money or the time.

“There was always something to do,” Holt told the Columbia Daily Herald. “We didn’t travel much.”

"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 told the Associated Press.

In fact, Holt had only left Tennessee once in her life — to visit Alabama.

Thanks to a partnership between Wish of a Lifetime, an organization that grants wishes to the elderly, and Brookdale Senior Living Solutions, the assisted living centre where Holt lives, the centenarian was gifted an all-expenses-paid trip to the Gulf of Mexico so that she could finally see the beach.

“I am thrilled to death over it,” Holt said of her then-upcoming trip. “I know I will enjoy it.”

Last summer, two workers at Brookdale’s Sterling House learned that Holt had never seen the ocean. They immediately filled out an application to Wish of a Lifetime, hoping to make Holt’s dream come true.

“Being 100 years old and never seeing the ocean, to me, that shouldn’t happen. The ocean is a beautiful thing, and I can’t wait to get her down there,” care associate Tracy Marcy told the Daily Herald. “It’s a God gift. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and I am glad that we are going to be a part of it,”

The organization provided Holt with a motorized wheelchair with thick tires that could roll on sand so that Holt could get close to the ocean’s edge. She then took a short walk along the beach with two care associates from Brookdale. She even dipped her toes in the water.

"I wasn’t scared but it was cold," Holt said of her once-in-a-lifetime experience.

"When we got to the [hotel] room yesterday she was just pointing out the ocean and, you know, her facial expressions and…she was just speechless," Mark Davis, executive director of Brookdale’s Sterling House, told the Associated Press.

"We don’t have nothing like this in Giles County," Holt said.