92 year old woman votes for Obama, from an ambulance
You might think we'd go for Michelle Obama as Woman of the Week today, she being the first black First Lady, and all. But Betty Owen of San Antonio, Texas, pips her by a whisker.
Owen, a 92-year old Marine Corps veteran who served in World War II AND an ex-president of the League of Women Voters of Memphis, cast her first ballot in 1940. And despite being on a gurney, in an ambulance, in a car park, she wasn't about to let that stop her participating in the historic elections yesterday. Dressed in her Sunday finest, Owen, who can't walk since suffering a stroke four years ago, was taken from her retirement home to vote at the eleventh hour. Thinking she'd missed out on casting her ballot after failing to fill out an absentee form, her daughter found her voter registration card at the last minute. Which meant officials at the polling station were able to take an electronic voting machine on board the ambulance. But it gets better...
According to the San Antonio News, local Judge Sam Green was on board the ambulance, and told a grinning Owen "You know, you look so pretty in that red dress," before promptly kissing her on the top of her head and quipping, "Don't tell my wife".
Betty voted for Obama.
Anyway. As you can imagine, having spent the morning watching all the coverage (dancing in the streets of Philadelphia, someone so excited they literally ran under a truck in New York - honest, go to 1:40 of that clip to see) there's a wealth of incredible youtubular celebration on the web today. But Betty Owen is Woman of the Week for restoring my faith in political participation and reminding me of the all-round magnificence of women.
A lesson in geriatric fierceness for us all, I think.
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