For Lela Sargent, the memories from decades ago float by like wispy clouds on a summer day.
Her dad fishing near the log booms in Kenmore.
Standing on the roof of her nearby family home on Simonds Road with a view of Lake Washington.
Trips to a nearby Kenmore park, where her mom chaperoned her, her twin sister and her sister’s boyfriend.
“I ended up kissing him,” Sargent said with a smile. “But that’s all.”
For Sargent, who is 92, the simple wish of being taken for a drive from Everett to her old neighborhood near Kenmore on Thursday really was a dream come true.
She had waited nearly 10 years for this homecoming to the neighborhood she grew up in and spent about 60 years of her adult life.
Many of the old landmarks are gone. The restaurant where she worked as a waitress is closed. And one nearby restaurant where she hoped to have lunch Thursday, which overlooks the Burke-Gilman trail, recently closed as well.
Asked if she recognized a lot of the old neighborhood, Sargent said: “I didn’t expect to. It’s been 10 years.”
But a lifetime of memories remain, the reason a day trip back to her old neighborhood was a wish she had patiently nurtured for more than a year.
It was the one thing she requested when she and other residents at Everett Care and Rehabilitation Center were asked to name one wish they would like to have granted.
“She talks about it so often, it is so clearly dear to her heart,” said Kristin Kunkle, activity director at the care center. “She wanted to see it one more time, to drive through her old neighborhood.”
Sargent has no remaining family members, Kunkle explained. Sargent’s twin sister has died. Sargent had to move out of her longtime home when she moved in to the care center.
“She’s been through so much and has such a great spirit,” Kunkle said. “We wanted to give her back a piece of what’s she’s lost.”
The requests from residents to be granted one special wish is part of a national program run by SunBridge Healthcare, which operates the Everett care facility.
Since 2008, SunBridge has asked residents at its facilities in 25 states to make similar wishes. The project is run in conjunction with the Twilight Wish Foundation, a nationwide nonprofit whose mission is to grant wishes to the elderly.
This year, 130 applications were submitted by people living in SunBridge facilities across the United States, with requests in three categories: need, nostalgic or a dream wish, explained Bernadette Bell, a company spokeswoman.
Previous dream wish requests have been made for trips to dance on a Broadway stage and to see live lions — both of which were granted, Bell said.
Sargent had originally made the request last year, but her wish wasn’t picked for the program. She made it again this year and “although beautiful,” again wasn’t picked, Bell said.
Instead, Kunkle decided to take on the project of fulfilling Sargent’s wish. On Thursday, she was joined by employees of Career Staff Unlimited, a Lynnwood medical staffing firm, who also heard about her wish.
Sargent was dressed up and accessorized for the event, with new aqua blue pants, a white-and-aqua-blue print blouse, matching loop earrings and a beaded blue necklace. Her nails had been manicured and painted a complementary shade of blue.
“This is fun,” Sargent said after being wheeled up to a table in the Mazatlan Restaurant on NE Bothell Way. “This isn’t the old restaurant, but this is fun.”
Sargent said she didn’t want her wish to be “selfish,” just for her to enjoy. She was happy to be joined by others, including Kunkle, and her friend, Eileen Thomson, 84, who also lives at the Everett care center.
“This is just wonderful,” Sargent said. “I just hope everyone else enjoys it, too.”
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486, salyer@heraldnet.com.
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