SOUTHFIELD — Born on April 18, 1922, Catherine Davis is a 102-year-old Southfield resident whose lifetime wish of going to Washington, D.C. to visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture was granted for her birthday last April by “Wish of a Lifetime” from AARP. Davis was born to sharecroppers in Benson, Alabama and started working at the age of 7 years old to help make ends meet. She moved to Detroit in 1955, and when she arrived, she was shocked that things weren’t all that different from the treatment she received living in the south as a Black woman. “I was shocked because when I got here, it was still the same; it wasn’t any different,” Davis said. “They didn’t have signs up, but there was certain places you couldn’t go,” she said. As an advocate for civil rights, Davis marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Detroit’s 1963 Walk to Freedom March. She reflected on that memory. “It was a beautiful day in Detroit, and it was so many people,” Davis said. “We were shoulder to shoulder. It was a joyful, joyful day. It was the treat of my life to march with Martin Luther King and to shake his hand.” Davis is also a cancer survivor who was diagnosed with breast cancer at 94. Davis was nominated for Wish of a Lifetime after being interviewed by another wish recipient, Roohee Marshall, whose wish was to go on a writer’s retreat and write a book about inspirational people in her community. Davis is mentioned in Marshall’s book, “A Generation Found: Pearls of Wisdom.” After she heard about the National Museum of African American History and Culture, she dreamt of going but thought her age would be an obstacle. “It was a wish that really came true for me,” Davis said. She shared the experience with her granddaughter, Deana, and great-granddaughter, Mia. “You made this 102-year-old lady happy,” Davis said of the trip. “The red carpet was rolled out for me, and I am so grateful.” Wish of a Lifetime was founded in 2008 in Denver, Colorado, after the founder, Jeremy Bloom, a member of the United States ski team and two-time Olympian and 11-time World Cup gold medalist, was visiting Japan for a World Cup competition. While riding the bus, he witnessed the kindness and respect demonstrated towards elderly people in Japan, which he thought was somewhat of a foreign concept in the U.S. When an elderly woman got on the bus, everyone got up, helped her onto the bus, bowed to her and made sure she was seated comfortably before the bus started moving. Through his travels to other parts of the world, Bloom witnessed more acts of kindness and respect to senior citizens and became inspired to bring that culture back home with him. Wish of a Lifetime is dedicated to Bloom’s grandmother, Donna Wheeler, who was born in Port Huron, Michigan. The nonprofit aims to spread joy by granting the wishes of adults 65 and up. “We affiliated with the AARP in 2020, and we’ve grown quite a bit. In fact, this last year, we hit our 3,000 wish milestone, which is pretty amazing,” said Natasha Hartsfield, the field manager at Wish of a Lifetime. “Wish of a Lifetime’s mission is to spark hope and joy in the hearts of older adults by fulfilling dreams through personalized experiences that promote healthy aging, and there’s a long list of factors that get in the way of people being able to age with hope and joy, as you can imagine.” Hartsfield shared that financial constraints, health issues and societal inequality are just a few factors that impact happiness in the lives of older adults. She explained that loneliness impacts older adults, which is what makes their mission more impactful. “We know that one in three older adults are in isolation, and that is a problem,” Hartsfield said. “It’s a compounding problem, because there are all these other effects from it — you know, health issues, mental health issues. … It doesn’t matter how old you are, it doesn’t feel good to feel alone,” she said. The four types of wishes, according to Hartsfield, are, honoring service, lifelong dreams, reuniting with loved ones and rekindling old passions. She shared that she’s seen everything from someone taking piano lessons and then having a recital, to people who have never seen the ocean getting to travel to go saltwater fishing, to people reuniting with grandchildren that they haven’t seen in years. Hartsfield explained that the only requirement is that the participant must be at least 65 years old. The process begins with an application for nomination. Individuals can nominate themselves or a senior. Through funding from donations, partnerships and volunteer fundraising, the wishes are able to move to the next step and be fulfilled. The final step of the process is storytelling. Hartsfield added that regardless of the participant’s conditions, the team will try to accommodate them so that their wish can be granted. She shared an example of a woman on dialysis who wanted to drive the Pacific Coast Highway, so their team coordinated with dialysis clinics along the west coast so that she could receive her treatments while fulfilling her wish. “The beautiful thing about Catherine’s wish is it really hits two key points of why we find the storytelling piece so important in honoring and sharing these stories, and that’s legacy, and then also that intergenerational connection,” Hartsfield said. Hartsfield said that she was choked up when she heard Davis’s story. “Her wish shares the legacy of her life and her firsthand accounts of the struggles and achievements, so that we can better understand history,” Hartsfield said. “And then also the fact that she shared it with her granddaughter and great-granddaughter. That’s pretty powerful. So we really work to tell the stories, to bridge the gap between the generations and spark hope and joy.” For more information on Wish of a Lifetime, visit wishofalifetime.org.

Advertisement

Let's build the next big thing. Right now!

Learn More