Officer takes dying woman to beach to fulfill her last wish

SHIP BOTTOM, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey police officer helped a dying woman fulfill her final wish of going to the beach one last time.

Pat Kelly, 78, of Burlington City, has a terminal diagnosis of acute leukemia and is in hospice care.

WPVI-TV in Philadelphia (http://6abc.cm/2nmFUQC ) reports her family asked her what she’d like to do before dying.

“I said “Go to the shore,’” Kelly said.

Her family asked the Ship Bottom Police Department for help in getting her there.

So, on a weekend trip to Long Beach Island, Officer Ron Holloway drove Kelly to the water’s edge.

“Oh they could have taken me right then, and I would have been the happiest person. That I could be there one last time in the ocean and the sand, and that was my hurrah,” Kelly said.

She spent time with her granddaughters looking at the water, and there was a group hug and prayer with friends and Holloway.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Being able to take her out for this ride on the beach, it was definitely a life-moving experience. It was a check mark in my career,” Holloway said.

Kelly said after she dies, she’d like for her ashes to be scattered on the beach.

“That’s my place. I’ll be there forever. Just watch out. Some people might step on me,” Kelly said.