DAYTON, Nev. (AP) — A 102-calendar year-aged northern Nevada girl identified regionally as “Motorcycle Mama” celebrated her newest birthday on the back of a Harley Davison.
Velma Thornburgh’s daughter organized the trek in Dayton on U.S. Freeway 50 east of Carson Town very last weekend with a area motorbike club.
“I just can’t believe that it,” Thornburg said as members of the Templar Crusaders Motorcycle Club Northern Nevada gathered last weekend to celebrate her 102nd birthday.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she explained to them.
Born April 10, 1920, Thornburgh of Dayton applied to experience with her father when she was youthful, stated her daughter, Sandra Bell, 77.
She rode horses and bikes perfectly into her 80s and usually made an once-a-year trip on her birthday until finally it was place on hold in current yrs thanks to COVID-19, Bell instructed the Nevada Appeal.
She said her mother’s wish was to go on 1 a lot more motorbike journey this yr.
On Sunday, Thornburgh slipped on a Harley-Davidson jacket the club gave her. Other individuals carefully equipped on her helmet just correct and cautiously lifted her on to the seat driving Templar Crusaders President Bruce Harmon.
Bell, who joined them on the excursion, requested a big birthday cake with a picture demonstrating Thornburgh on a bike from her previously riding times to commemorate the distinctive “102.”
Bell experienced achieved out to Harmon and the club via a church contact and Harmon’s niece, Brieanna Smith, to inquire if they’d grant Thornburgh’s wish.
The club is designed up of law enforcement and first responder veterans who routinely provide )seniors via once-a-year functions, together with accumulating money and items as a result of an once-a-year holiday poker run.
“Not all bikers are bad guys,” Harmon stated.
It was the first time the team experienced finished a birthday experience, he said, but they have been anxious to enable for somebody like Thornburgh.
“This just felt like a little something we should do,” Harmon reported. “It was rather an honor and all of my pals, they would not have handed it up.”
“Most of the men that operate all over town that experience these huge beasts are terrific significant teddy bears,” he stated. “We’re below to assistance the group and this is just one particular factor that we like to do.”
Bell claimed she was grateful for the club’s generous gesture to her mother.
“I pretty much cried when I got on the motorcycle, I was attempting so tough not to cry,” Bell explained.
“That truly does necessarily mean a great deal to me. I know it did to Mother. That is what I explained to Bruce. How do you say thank you? There’s no terms. She could not hold out. She was the queen of the working day,” she claimed.
As for the trip itself, Thornburgh created it as much as she could on U.S. 50, producing it down to almost the submit business office just before needing to change back again.
“I’ll be again up coming 12 months to give you a further experience,” Harmon explained to her when they returned.
Buddies and club associates then sang “Happy Birthday” as Thornburgh beamed.
“She’s a outstanding individual,” Bell mentioned. “She’s got much more endurance than I do, and I simply cannot hold up with her. … She’s experienced a birthday over and above just about anything she’s at any time dreamed.”