Canadian centenarian Rita Georgeff wanted to walk across Gordie Howe International Bridge after her 100th birthday, she finally made it happen at 102

For most people, turning 102 might be a reason to look back at a lifetime of memories. For Rita Georgeff, it was a chance to finally check something off her bucket list.

The 102-year-old Windsor, Ontario, resident recently walked across the newly opened Gordie Howe International Bridge on September 1, fulfilling a dream she had originally planned for her 100th birthday.

Georgeff had been waiting for this moment for two years. The bridge, which connects Windsor with Detroit, was officially opened to traffic on July 27 after construction delays pushed back her original birthday plan. But the delay didn't make Georgeff abandon the idea.


At 102, she finally did it.

She had planned the walk for her 100th birthday

Georgeff, a lifelong resident of Windsor's Sandwich Town neighborhood, had hoped to cross the new bridge when she turned 100.

That plan was postponed as construction of the Gordie Howe International Bridge was delayed.

“I wanted to really do this when I was 100 and I had to wait two years to do it,” Georgeff told CTV News.

Was the wait worth it?

“It sure is,” she replied.

Her friends had been anticipating the outing almost as much as she had.

“We’ve been waiting for two years. It was planned for her 100th birthday. It got postponed, postponed again,” her friend Gail Bondy said.

Finally, on September 1, Georgeff and her friends made their way onto the bridge.

At 102, she didn't want anyone helping her

There was one thing Georgeff apparently made clear before the walk: she intended to do it herself.

Her friends were there to accompany her and make sure she was safe, but Georgeff wasn't interested in being carried, pushed or constantly assisted.

“She was unbelievable,” Bondy said. “The way she was going without wanting any help at all. Let me be. Follow me. Be there if I hesitate. It was all Rita.”

And for much of the walk, Rita led the group.

Other pedestrians noticed the determined centenarian making her way across the bridge. Some stopped to wish her a happy birthday, while others posed for photographs with her.

For Georgeff, it wasn't simply a walk across a bridge. It was the completion of a goal she had carried with her for years.

“She’s such an inspiration for us. I’m 70,” fellow walker Jackie Craig told CTV News.

Craig's husband, Larry, even joked about following in Georgeff's footsteps.

“We’re hoping to be able to do that, definitely in 32 years and we’ll see you back here in 32 years,” he said.

She remembers Windsor's other famous bridge

Georgeff's connection to the Windsor-Detroit waterfront stretches back much further than the Gordie Howe bridge.

She was just 7 years old when another major crossing, the Ambassador Bridge, opened in 1929.

Georgeff remembers the crowds surrounding the bridge at the time.

“I was 7 years old and I lived on the corner of Peter and Indian Road and there were just mounds and mounds of people on the bridge,” she recalled.

“But at 7, you really don’t know what what’s going on,” she added.

More than nine decades later, she found herself witnessing another historic bridge open—and this time, she wasn't simply watching the crowds.

She was part of the story.

'It's really a feat of good engineering'

Georgeff was also struck by the scale of the new bridge itself.

“The Gordie Howe International Bridge is really a feat of good engineering,” she told CTV News.

For her, however, the significance of the bridge goes beyond engineering and transportation.

She said the project has already had a positive effect on Windsor's Sandwich Town area and appreciated the increased access to the waterfront.

“At my age it’s difficult to actually go down to Sandwich Street, but every time I do I appreciate how much the Gordie Howe Bridge has done for the town,” she said. “It’s fantastic.”

That perspective gives her story another layer: Georgeff isn't simply someone who happened to walk across a new bridge.

She has lived long enough to watch Windsor's waterfront change dramatically—and to see two generations of major international crossings become part of the city's landscape.

What does Rita want for 103?

After finally accomplishing the goal she had set for her 100th birthday, Georgeff was asked what she would like to achieve when she turns 103.

Her answer was considerably simpler.

“That I reach my birthday, actually,” she said with a laugh.

There is something wonderfully fitting about that response.

After waiting two years for a bridge to open, gathering her friends and then walking across it at 102 without wanting anyone to hold her up, Georgeff's next goal isn't another grand adventure.

It's simply another birthday.

And perhaps that's the quiet lesson behind her extraordinary bridge walk: some dreams take longer than expected, plans don't always happen on schedule, and sometimes the best thing you can do is keep the goal alive until the opportunity finally arrives.

For Rita Georgeff, the bridge was two years late.

She wasn't.