Brookdale and Wish of a Lifetime hoist the sail for Oklahoma City man

by Kristin Puckett on 24 Jun 2014 Ninety-one year old Rex dusted off his lifejacket and boat shoes to hit the deck of a sailboat, making his Wish of a Lifetime™ come true this week. Brookdale and Wish of a Lifetime™ put the Oklahoma City sailor and fisherman back on the water after a 20 year hiatus.

'I sailed when I was younger and I always enjoyed it,' said Rex. 'It’s very relaxing to me.' He got to share his sailing experience with his daughter and son-in-law. 'The people were nice, and the weather was great. We enjoyed it very much,' he said. Rex is a resident of Sterling House of Oklahoma City West, a Brookdale senior living community.

Rex was an avid fisherman and boater for more than 50 years, spending time at lakes throughout Texas and Oklahoma. He has always loved being aboard a boat enjoying the peace and quiet of the water. Twenty-five years ago, Rex had the time of his life sailing Lake Thunderbird and his Wish of a Lifetime™ was to relive that experience. The president of the Lake Thunderbird Sailing Club took him out for a voyage this week.

Rex’s lifelong passions include not only sailing and fishing, but also photography. He spent four years as a professional photographer for the United States Air Force while stationed in San Angelo, Texas. He photographed military equipment, troops and aerial landscapes until his retirement. That’s when he turned to being a commercial photographer and running a printing business. Toward the end of his career, Rex became the superintendent of printing services at University of Oklahoma, where he also fished in the school’s annual fishing tournament yearly.

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 Living and Senior Wish.