Wish of a Lifetime 82-Year-Old Shares the Experience with Brother, Forming Closer Relationship

Oct. 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Randy Ashcraft and her big brother, George Nale, are siblings who have shared many experiences together over the years and continue to strengthen their close relationship with each other.

Randy's Wish of a Lifetime to ride in a hot air balloon with George allowed them to share a special experience together recently after talking about it for 20 years. 

They used to watch hot air balloons float over George's front porch in Morgan Hill, dreaming about someday taking a hot air balloon ride together.

"I have wanted to do this for a long time. It was so beautiful," Randy said of their trip soaring over California's wine country.

Randy spent many years teaching school to elementary and special needs students. She loved working with children with special needs as she cared for her own daughter with Down syndrome. 

Like so many, Randy has faced obstacles throughout her life losing; her husband and a brother and having her leg amputated for health reasons. 

Losing her leg has limited her from participating in many physical activities, but mentally she is strong and forges new relationships in her senior living community greeting new residents, volunteering for the book club and recently starting a Bunco group. Randy, 82, is a resident of Brookdale San Jose.

In 2010, Brookdale Senior Living and Wish of a Lifetime formed a partnership to provide a helping hand in making some of the dreams of Brookdale's residents come true. 

To request a Wish, residents fill out a Wish application explaining an experience they would like to have fulfilled and how that experience relates to one or more dimensions of Brookdale's Optimum Life^® platform. Optimum Life cultivates whole-person wellness through fulfillment in the six key dimensions: purposeful, emotional, physical, social, spiritual and intellectual. 

Since the partnership's inception, more than 600 Brookdale seniors have had their Wish granted.

For more information about Brookdale and Wish of a Lifetime visit brookdale.com and seniorwish.org.