By CharLy Markwart
Princeton Times
—
PRINCETON — The wind in her hair, the world at her fingertips, and an exhilarating feeling of freedom rushing through her blood like a current of electricity surging through a power line.
For 85-year-old Anna Dishner, Aug. 21 was that kind of day.
Thanks to tireless efforts on the parts of Princeton Health Care Center, where Dishner resides, and an international non-profit organization called Second Wind Dreams, that was the special day when the octogenarian got the chance to make her dream come true.
And, her dream? Only to ride a motorcycle again.
“I can’t tell you how far this goes back, at least before 1940,” Dishner explained as she strapped on the bright pink helmet she would wear throughout the ride she’d awaited for for nearly seven decades. “The boy I was dating brought a motorcycle to pick me up our first time out, and that was about all it took. We rode all the time, and he never missed a date on that bike because of the weather or anything.”
It’s no surprise that that charming and punctual young biker eventually became Dishner’s husband. The couple soon gave up motorcycles after a biking accident left her husband in a coma for several days, but the desire to ride never fully worked its way out of Anna’s heart. And, that’s where Second Wind Dreams comes in.
“I had been to the West Virginia Health Care Association conference, and an employee from another facility was telling me about the organization and how they work to fulfill the dreams and wishes of seniors,” said PHC’s Katrina Tickle, who did much of the legwork to make Dishner’s dream a reality. “I always want to give back to our residents, and I thought, ‘This is something we could do to see their dreams come true.’ I came back and talked to our administrator, and he was in agreement right away.”
So PHC signed on with Second Wind Dreams. Quickly, the Georgia-based organization, founded in 1997 and now serving hundreds of eldercare facilities in the United States and Canada, sent questionnaires to the facility, asking residents about their interests and the one thing they’d like to do again if given the opportunity. When PHC employees saw Dishner’s exciting wish, they decided it would be the first dream they’d work to fulfill.
“Many times my grandmother would pull out old pictures to show me and reminisce,” said Dishner’s granddaughter Beth Centeno, one of many family members on hand Saturday for Anna’s ride. “She would recall things she and my grandfather did, and the pictures of them riding motorcycles were ones she would always pull out. It was something she loved, and for the people who take care of her here to work to make that dream come true was so wonderful and exciting. This is a woman who is 85 years old; she’s beat cancer in the fourth stage; she’s beat meningitis, and she’s had a tumor removed from her brain, so to see her do this today is so inspiring.”
To make the ride happen, PHC employees called on Princeton’s Hillbilly Cycles. Donald Poe, one of the company’s owners, was happy to be the man with the honor of being Dishner’s cycle chauffeur, hitting the highway with Anna tucked comfortably in his sidecar.
“We’ve done several events similar to this, and just to get the opportunity to be able to do this with Second Wind Dreams was fantastic,” he said. “I think she (Dishner) thoroughly enjoyed it. She kept looking around at everything we drove by and I just think she had a great time.”
In a fashion that her family members insist is entirely characteristic, Dishner did the ride her way. While the trip was initially only planned to be a short ride down Courthouse Road from PHC to Andy Clark Ford and back, her son said Anna decided differently.
“She wanted to go all the way down Airport Road and back on Route 20, so that’s what they did for her,” said John Dishner, who traveled with his son from Hazard, Ky. to be a part of his mother’s big day. “They went through Glenwood and out and back on Route 20, and I’m just tickled with the whole thing. I have pictures of my mother and my dad on a motorcycle when they were dating, and when my sister told me this is what she asked for, I thought it was great. The smile on her face when they pulled out of here, I think, says it all.”
Indeed, Anna Dishner’s bright, youthful, ear-to-ear grin as her motorcycle took off on the trip of a lifetime did speak volumes. After being carefully lifted into the sidecar by an apparatus able to safely transfer her from her wheelchair to the bike, Dishner and Poe led a caravan of 12 bikes and 18 riders out of the PCH parking lot, to the applause of the crowd of residents, staffers, and Dishner family members and friends gathered for the occasion. Like a grand marshal, or better yet, like a beauty queen in a parade, Anna grinned and waved to her fans, humbly but gleefully soaking up her moment in the sun.
“This is all almost unbelievable,” she said before taking off. “I never really thought about this really happening. But, these things really have a way of working themselves up to being something.”
And, “something” it surely was. Dishner’s caravan included several PHC employees and PHC Administrator Roger Topping, as well as other friends and Anna’s own grandson, who rode his Harley from Hazard to be in on the trip. Rain threatened throughout the overcast day of the ride, but it seemed to hold off especially for the one-hour ride of one very special biker. In fact, a bit of sunshine even poked through the clouds and shone down on Anna’s face as she rode, carefree, through her old stomping grounds.
“It was great,” she exclaimed when the cycles returned to PHC. “I got to see so many things I hadn’t been around to see in a long time. It was really nice.”
That’s exactly the reaction PCH Activities Director Debbie Burnette was hoping to hear from Dishner, who retired from the non-profit organization Mercer County RSVP, where she worked as a recruiter of senior citizen volunteers.
“This just brought tears to my eyes,” said Burnette. “She wanted to be able to ride one more time, and she did. I was praying during the whole ride that she was having a good time, and I know she did. It was just an amazing experience to be able to work as a team with so many people to fulfill her dream.”
Dishner’s daughter, Elizabeth Burton, agreed.
“This whole thing was nothing short of a miracle,” she said. “She just turned 85 on Tuesday, so this was just a great climax to her birthday week.”
PHC employees say they plan to fulfill the wishes of many more residents through Second Wind Dreams in the future. Currently, they’re working on raising funds to take one patient to the beach, and after that, staffers hope to achieve at least one dream per month. It is likely, though, that no dream fulfillment will ever be more special or satisfying than Anna’s.
“It thrilled me that this made her so happy,” said Tickle. “It was worth the work just to see her smile.”
And, as she pulled back into the PHC entryway to the cheers of her family and friends, donning her pink helmet and wearing that endearing smile, one thing was overwhelmingly clear: Anna Dishner is one cool biker chick.
For information on Second Wind Dreams, visit www.secondwind.org.
— Contact CharLy Markwart at cmarkwart@ptonline.net.
