Dorothy Flood, a 75-year-old African-American from Houston, briefly lost her composure as she entered the train’s dining car in Canon City, Colorado As a child when she traveled by train with her grandmother in the 1940s, she had been denied access due to segregation. After wiping her eyes, she purposefully made her way to her seat in anticipation of a three-course gourmet meal, an experience more than 65 years in the making. Flood flew from Houston, Texas, where she resides at the Terrace at Memorial City, to Colorado to receive her lifelong wish, thanks to Brookdale Senior Living and Jeremy Bloom’s Wish of a Lifetime. Her story was featured on National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” on May 30 and is available here online at NPR.org.
As a child growing up during segregation, Flood traveled from New Jersey to North Carolina every summer with her grandmother. In the early years, the trip was made by train. On those long rides, Flood remembers peering through the glass into the dining car with its fine linen and china, but not being allowed in due to her race. Flood and her grandmother packed shoe boxes with their meals to eat along the route.
"As a child, I didn’t understand why we couldn’t go in and eat too,” said Flood. “I would ask my grandmother, and she would just say we were not allowed.”
When she was older, the two would travel by car to visit relatives in the South, but Flood’s desire to eat in the dining car never went away. On May 5, Flood was able at last to enjoy lunch in a train dining car, an experience she wasn’t sharing alone, she was certain.
“I know my grandmother is here with me today,” Flood stated, matter-of-factly.
On the Royal Gorge scenic train in Canon City, Flood was served a baby green salad with sundried cranberries, candied pecans and blue cheese crumbles with raspberry vinaigrette dressing as her starter. For the entrée, she dined on grilled salmon with pesto, roasted vegetable orzo pasta and seasonal vegetables. Her dining experience was topped off with a serving of triple chocolate mousse with mascarpone shavings for dessert.
Although she faced discrimination as a child, Flood’s positive outlook on life was never affected. A dynamic matriarch, Flood has guided her children and grandchildren with an abundance of love. She provided for them in the early years as an eighth grade language arts and social studies teacher, and later in life as a real estate marketing agent. After retiring, she volunteered as a mentor at Nottingham Elementary in Houston and was a caregiver for her grandson who eventually succumbed to the effects of ataxia. She marvels about how far African-Americans have come, from a painful past of segregation to the pride-filled present with an African-American president.
In 2010, Brookdale Senior Living and Jeremy Bloom’s 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. Residents at Brookdale Senior Living communities nationwide are invited to share and submit their wishes at www.seniorwish.org . Since the partnership's inception, more than 200 seniors have had their wish granted.