--- title: Watch This 100-Year-Old-Woman See the Ocean for the First Time description: One-hundred-year-old Ruby Holt had one wish for her 101st birthday: to see the ocean for the very first time canonical: https://time.com/3598975/watch-ruby-holt-100-year-old-woman-see-ocean-gulf-of-mexico-tennessee/ author: Helen Regan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-21T06:36:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:14:45.725Z og:title: 'It's Cold' og:description: One-hundred-year-old Ruby Holt sees the ocean for the very first time. og:url: https://time.com/3598975/watch-ruby-holt-100-year-old-woman-see-ocean-gulf-of-mexico-tennessee/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'It's Cold' twitter:description: One-hundred-year-old Ruby Holt sees the ocean for the very first time. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch This 100-Year-Old-Woman See the Ocean for the First Time by [Helen Regan](https://time.com/author/helen-regan/) ## Helen Regan Nov 21, 2014 6:36 AM UTC by [Helen Regan](https://time.com/author/helen-regan/) ## Helen Regan Nov 21, 2014 6:36 AM UTC Ruby Holt had one [wish](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/a98c67f171de4685a0a3cbb1ab502fb4/100-year-old-woman-sees-ocean-1st-time) for her 101st birthday: to see the ocean for the very first time. She had spent most of her life working on a farm and raising four children in rural Tennessee and could never afford to take a 400-mile trip to the coast, the Associated Press reports. But when Holt’s assisted-living center got in contact with the Wish of a Lifetime organization she was whisked away on an all-expenses-paid trip to the Gulf of Mexico. “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 said. Holt had been provided with a motorized wheelchair with thicker tires to roll on the sand. She was also able to take a walk along the beach and feel the sea on her toes. Her reaction? “It’s cold,” she said. _Read more at the_ [_Associated Press_](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/a98c67f171de4685a0a3cbb1ab502fb4/100-year-old-woman-sees-ocean-1st-time). _Read next:_ [_This Couple Tricked Everyone Into Being in Their Pregnancy Announcement_](http://time.com/3589532/perfect-pregnancy-announcement-couple-tricks-family/?xid=time%5Freadnext) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3598975/watch-ruby-holt-100-year-old-woman-see-ocean-gulf-of-mexico-tennessee/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3598975/watch-ruby-holt-100-year-old-woman-see-ocean-gulf-of-mexico-tennessee/"},"headline":"Watch This 100-Year-Old-Woman See the Ocean for the First Time","datePublished":"2014-11-21T06:36:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:14:45.725Z","description":"Her birthday wish was to go to the beach","url":"https://time.com/3598975/watch-ruby-holt-100-year-old-woman-see-ocean-gulf-of-mexico-tennessee/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Birthday","People","beach"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Helen Regan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/helen-regan/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3598975/watch-ruby-holt-100-year-old-woman-see-ocean-gulf-of-mexico-tennessee/","name":"Watch This 100-Year-Old-Woman See the Ocean for the First Time"}}]}] ```