Source: WBBH/NBC
For anyone who is second-guessing standing in line to vote tomorrow just think, if a 99-year-old woman can make her way to the polls to cast her ballot, you can too.
This year, Fort Myers, FL, resident Rosie Lewis voted for the first time in her life. She overlooked 24 elections, including the historic one of 2008, but the election of Barack Obama is what Ms. Lewis says motivated her to vote this year.
“I said I’m going to vote if the Lord spares my life this time,” she told WALB of her choice. “I made it up to my mind to vote.”
A family friend registered Lewis to vote and her grandson, Nelson Lewis, cosigned his grandmother’s momentous decision, saying:
“She’s an amazing person, 99-years-old and still has her right mind,” he said. “She completely understands what she just did. My grandmother never forgets anything.”
As local WALB points out, Lewis was 7-years-old when the 19th Amendment passed giving women the right to vote, and by the time Jim Crow laws were abolished she was in her 50s. Nelson says that’s likely why she hasn’t bother to cast a vote before now.
“She was already set in her ways, and wasn’t really thinking about politics,” he said.
This year, Lewis is definitely thinking about politics and one man in particular. As the woman who is just one year away from marking 100 years on this earth, plainly told reporters:
“I love Obama.”
WALB.com, Albany News, Weather, Sports
