‘Like a kid in a toy store’: 81-year-old thrilled to cross dog sledding off bucket list

While many people make bucket lists, not everyone is able to make their wishes or dreams come true.

Much the same, something marked on the bucket list of an 81-year-old woman from Nova Scotia’s Pictou County was something she never thought would come true — going dog mushing or dog sledding.

“Shortly after my 80th birthday, I grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil and I thought, ‘these are some things I might have done when I was younger’,” Elizbeth Baillie says. “And I’m older and crazier now, so why not do them?”

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Baillie, full of energy and enthusiasm, set her targets clear.

And after a trip to Havelock, N.B.. with her daughter Cathy, that can now be crossed off her to-do list.

“I never in my wildest dreams expected to have (my wishes) fulfilled,” Baillie says.

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Aside from going dog sledding, she’s already met a local TV personality, went up in a hot air balloon, went to a The Men of the Deeps concert and even got to on a motorcycle ride.

That’s in large part thanks to her family, especially Cathy.

“We have to take care of our seniors,” Cathy says. “You don’t know what tomorrow holds, so let’s give them what we can today.”

“Kindness, understanding, loving,” are some of the traits she says her mother possess. “She has a lot of love to share.”

So that’s why Cathy applied to have her mother’s wish granted through ‘We are Young,’ a Halifax-based group trying to provide that opportunity for seniors in that province.

And with help from N.B. Urban Mushing, that experience was made possible Sunday.

Asked if she was excited prior to going dog sledding, Elizabeth was frank, saying, “just like a kid in a toy store.”

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While some people may have limitations, the group, which granted its 19th wish this weekend, is hoping anyone can make their dreams come true.

“What I saw was happiness, that someone took the time to acknowledge (Elizabeth’s) wants and her needs as a person, and at any age, you can still do the things you love,” says Katie Mahoney, co-founder of the group.

Finishing her trip on the sled, she could be heard shouting “I did it, I did it,” showing her true appreciation and gratitude for another wish fulfilled.

And, finishing off with a joke that she was “going to home to start another (bucket list).”