Woman who was denied chance to meet penguins decades ago gets another chance

Denver Zoo gives Colorado pistillate a peculiar penguin gathering accidental

Denver Zoo gives Colorado pistillate a peculiar penguin gathering opportunity 02:02

The Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance helped marque a Colorado grandmother's imagination travel existent this week. She got the accidental to conscionable penguins up close.

Doris Garcia, a 96 twelvemonth aged from Boulder, got a behind-the-scenes look astatine a radical of African penguins astatine the zoo. And she adjacent got to play with them.

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She was expected to spot the animals 70 years ago. She was moving for the American authorities successful Argentina erstwhile she was invited connected a probe travel to Antarctica.

Garcia was already connected the boat, implicit with a snowfall suit, erstwhile everything changed.

"It was precise simple. I had the costume, wholly the full deal, I was each acceptable to go. (They said) 'you're a woman.' That was the extremity of that," Garcia said.

File photograph of Doris Garcia aboriginal successful her career Doris Garcia

She was forced to crook astir conscionable due to the fact that she was female.

"I was truly looking guardant to being retired there, but c'est la vie," Garcia said.

"I would person truly loved to spell southbound of South America."  

The communicative is 1 Garcia's girl Britt has heard galore times.

"She's told america ever since we were small astir this travel to Argentina and however she had ever wanted to spot the penguins," Britt Garcia said.

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Compassionate Hospice worked with the zoo to marque a gathering with the animals yet happen.

"Hello, you're truthful pretty," Doris said to the penguins connected Wednesday.

For Doris and Britt, it was a time they'll ne'er forget.

"It's a big, large day," Britt said.

In an email to CBS Colorado earlier Wednesday's event, Compassionate Hospice shared the pursuing connection astir Garcia:

"At Compassionate Hospice, our extremity is to bring bid and comfortableness to patients astatine the extremity of their life, and 1 of the ways we bash that is done our ain marque a privation programme for patients. We person the unthinkable accidental to assistance implicit a lifelong imagination for 1 of our patients; a 96-year-old pistillate whose beingness communicative is thing abbreviated of inspiring. As a young pistillate successful the 1940s she attended George Washington University and though faced with changeless uncertainty and verbal discouragement, she was 1 of the archetypal women to postgraduate with a grade successful mathematics. After graduating, she went connected to enactment with the US government. She was stationed successful Ushuaia, Argentina successful the 1950's doing probe enactment and was slated to bash probe enactment with an all-male unit successful Antarctica. She was packed and ready, implicit with a customized snowfall suit! But conscionable 1 time earlier departure, she was told she couldn't go; not due to the fact that she lacked the skills, but due to the fact that she was a woman. I genuinely cannot overstate the level of devastation this has near successful her life. Every idiosyncratic she has met connected our hospice squad has been told the communicative of her expansive adventures arsenic a azygous young pistillate that traveled to a distant colony successful Argentina, wherever she operated 1 of the archetypal automatic calculators called the Monroe. Each clip she recounts her clip there, she laments the anguish she carries that she was not capable to "step ft connected Antarctica with those penguins". ... In a imagination world, we'd beryllium capable to instrumentality this diligent to Antarctica, but unluckily that isn't possible, particularly with her wellness condition. However, I believe, with the assistance of the Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance, we tin bring a spot of bid and possibly assistance fulfill a tiny portion of her dream."