98-year-old grandmother, Estelle Liebow Schultz beat the health odds stacked against her, in order to vote in the 2016 election.
Shultz was told a year and a half ago that she had six months to live by her team of medical providers while she was in her Maryland hometown hospital, but what kept her alive then and now, is the idea of the first female president. An option that was not even possible when she was born in 1918, two years before the 19th amendment was ratified to the U.S. Constitution in 1920.
Under this amendment, American women were granted the right to vote for the first time. Prior to this law, women didn’t have the political sway.
Shultz’s granddaughter, Sarah Bunin Benor explained to ABC News, “She was in the hospital about one-and-a-half years ago and was diagnosed with a heart condition and was told she only had six months to live.” Adding that her hospice care grandmother continued to say, “I want to live long enough to vote.”
Schultz also explained that she is hopeful to see the inauguration of Presidential Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton in January. Saying, “I hope I live that long.”
“I would like to.”
In a social media post by Benor that has recieved over 2,000 likes, she said, “I’m posting this on the request of my 98-year-old grandma, who doesn’t use computers. In her words: “Estelle L. Schultz, who was born two years before women had the right to vote, marked her absentee ballot for the first female president, Hillary Clinton.”
As of last month, the family set up I Waited 96 Years, a website featuring Shultz and roughly 20 other women who were born before the 19th Amendment and are voting this election.
Hands of pioneering career woman, lifelong fierce feminist Ruth Branchor Brotman, 102, voting for @HillaryClinton https://t.co/gkZMtlAsoW pic.twitter.com/SYGmbkwVm9
— We the Resilient (@wetheresilient) November 4, 2016
The oldest posted on the site at this time is 105-year-old Bea Egelman Ide, who was born in New York, New York and now resides in Connecticut.
According to Ide’s page on the site, she attributes her long life to healthy eating, regular exercise and lots of laughter.
Stating that, “I think (Clinton) will make a good president because she has a lot of experience and knows the workings of the presidency. I think she will get a very big portion of votes.”