FARGO - It's a pretty good day when Grandma Mary can still talk about "Beauty and the Beast" and princess dresses with great granddaughter, Kennedi.
At 92, Mary McPherson is sharp as a tack. Maybe it was all that farm fresh air back in rural Erie, North Dakota where she grew up, played girls basketball for Wheatland (half court), then went on to be a mom to 11 children.
These days, McPherson is living with congestive heart failure; she stays with family, and is on Hospice care.
"Never thought about being 92 until it got here," McPherson said.
This woman who has witnessed so much in her life, on Tuesday alongside a granddaughter, voted by absentee ballot.
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She felt it was something she needed to do. The act of voting is so important that time, even the shortage of it, could not keep her from the ballot.
McPherson, who attended a one room school, was born shortly after women got the right to vote. On Tuesday, she decided that, as woman in her 90's, she would cast her vote for another woman who could possibly lead this country.
"I thought this would be my last chance," she said, "It is like a miracle to me, to be around and to see all these things going on."
McPherson cooked in the rural schools for 40 years, served Doug Burgum his meals. He got her vote.
"Doug Burgum, definitely," she said.
Not far from where McPherson sits, a John F. Kennedy framed quote, "One person can make a difference," it reads, and everyone should try.
"It is amazing, hard to believe," said Mary.
Mary took the responsibility of voting so seriously, she also volunteered as a poll worker at her precinct over the years. This year, her very own election day ended like it started, a little playtime with a great grandchild.
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"Doing a great job, Kennedy," she said.
