A fearless hospice patient crossed the last thing off her bucket list in Apache Junction on Wednesday.
Barbara Kling was to the base of the Superstition Mountains to help make a dream come true.
With a medical mask over her eyes to not ruin the surprise, nurse Denise Lehman told Kling, "We're going to do it."
“Zip lining!?” said Barbara with a shocked expression on her face.
Instead of another day of treatment, thrill-seeker Kling was overwhelmed with joy by her hospice care team on Wednesday with the very last thing she wanted to do on her bucket list — a ride on a zip line.
“We wanted to make your dream come true,” said Lehman.
At 82 years old, Kling says she doesn’t mind clinging on to her oxygen pack as she ascends 150 feet in a seated harness, then barrels back down at 30 miles an hour at Gold Field Ghost Town in Apache Junction.
A signed waiver is still needed, despite the zip line advertised as the “world’s safest.”
“I’m in good hands,” said Kling with someone on either side of her, gently walking her toward the zip line.
Along with five Stoneridge hospice nurses on the ground and Chaplin, Kling and a nurse were able to get a good look at the desert landscape under their feet.
“I can’t tell you how happy, I am, I’m overwhelmed,” she said as the wind flowed through her hair.
In that moment, gratitude led Kling to forget about the pulmonary fibrosis or the tube around her nose.
“Oh that was scary at the end,” said Denise.
“We’re going again?!” said Kling.
In a letter describing their care, Lehman of Stoneridge hospice writes, “We do not focus on death or dying. We focus on living as positively and comfortably as possible during this portion of the journey.”
“[They] tell me not to give up, and I won't. I'm not a quitter. I'm a fighter. And I'm going to fight it until my last breath," said Kling.