Watch this centenarian see the ocean for the first time
It took 100 years, but Ruby Holt finally saw the ocean.
"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," she told The Associated Press.
Holt spent her life in rural Tennessee, working on a farm and T-shirt factory while raising her children. She only left the state once, and never had the time or money to travel 400 miles to the shore. When workers at the assisted-living facility she lives at learned that Holt had never seen the ocean, they quickly filled out a form with the Wish of a Lifetime organization, and soon, Holt was on her way to the Gulf of Mexico.
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This month, just weeks before her 101st birthday, Holt felt the water on her feet and the sand between her toes. Her visit didn't last long — "It's cold" was a constant refrain — but Holt was still in awe of her surroundings. "We don't have nothing like this in Giles County," she said. --Catherine Garcia
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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