102-year-old woman fulfils bucket list dream of visiting Australia
A 102-year-old woman has successfully fulfilled her bucket list dream of visiting all seven continents with the help of two Youtubers.
Dorothy Smith, who lives in a retirement home in San Francisco, had travelled all over the world except Australia.
When the guys behind the YouTube channel Yes Theory, Staffan Taylor and Ammar Kandil heard about this, they were determined to make her dream come true.
The two men, who met her in the retirement village, asked her "‘is there anything on your bucket list you haven’t ticked off yet?’ and she said, ‘I’ve been to six continents but I’ve never been to Australia,’” Yes Theory filmmaker Staffan Taylor explained.
The centenarian recalled how she received a note from them.
“He gave me this little piece of paper that said something about ‘dreams come true’,” Dorothy told Sunrise on Tuesday.
“I showed it to a friend, and they said, ‘look, there is no signature, there is no telephone number, there is no address — it’s fake’,” she added.
But it wasn't a scam and with the help of Destination NSW and Qantas, the Youtubers made her dream come true, and shared a clip of her experience online.
She chose Sydney as her Aussie destination because of the Opera House, which she is twice the age of.
“This is like Disneyland for grown ups,” she joked while visiting the iconic landmark.
She also visited visited Wild Life Sydney Zoo to see some koalas and kangaroos, the Botanic Gardens, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and went for a cruise on the harbour.
She described Aussies as “charming” and complimented the food, scenery and weather.
“These two gentlemen have been delightful, and there is a whole crew, and each one is as nice as the other, and they have been around this town very well,” she told Sunrise.
“It’s just beautiful — I’ve seen things like the zoo and the real animals.
“It is much more metropolitan (than I would have thought), and the people are charming,” she added.
The centenarian said it is "never too late" for a new adventure, saying: “You can either rust out or wear out and I’m trying to wear out rather than rust out."
Yes Theory co-founder Ammar Kandil who went on the trip with Dorothy and her daughter, said he was in awe of the centenarian's curiosity during the trip and had been inspired by her.
“One of the cornerstones of the experiences in our videos is actually whenever we go somewhere, we always try to ask the elders and get a lot of the wisdom out of them from their life experiences,” he said.
“Staffan (and I) had the opportunity to double down and do a full episode on elders, only to meet the most epic one of all (Dorothy) — it doesn’t get better.
“(As soon as we heard) we just went for it, and it was a no-brainer — as soon as she said she hadn’t been to Australia, we thought God bless her soul.
“She is so powerful and still moves, and if anyone can go to Australia at 102 years old, it is Dorothy.”
“Even at 102 years old she is still appreciating everything she is seeing,” he added.
Images: Yes Theory/ Youtube