- 103-year-old Dorothy Pollack got her first
tattoo after she was finally able to leave her assisted living facility in Michigan, where she spent months in lockdown. - Pollack struggled during the time in isolation. She wasn't allowed to receive letters at her facility and she's deaf, so she was unable to speak to anyone on the phone.
- After reuniting with her granddaughter, Teresa Gomez Zavitz-Jones, Pollack celebrated by getting a tattoo of a green frog — her favorite animal — and had her first motorcycle ride on the same day.
After being locked down in an assisted living facility in Muskegon, Michigan, for months, Dorothy Pollack celebrating being discharged by getting her first tattoo.
That same day, she also went for her first motorcycle ride.
Pollack has been residing in an assisted living facility since 2018. She moved there after the death of her daughter Jean, who had multiple sclerosis (MS).
At first, Pollack got along fine at the assisted living facility, her granddaughter said — but things changed when the pandemic began.
Pollack had a hard time when her assisted living facility went into lockdown in March
"She couldn't leave the building — even to sit out in the sun — and she loves to be outside," Pollack's granddaughter, Teresa Gomez Zavitz-Jones, told Insider.
Pollack struggled with spending so much time isolated from her family. Her facility stopped allowing residents to receive mail, which meant no greeting cards or notes from loved ones. Additionally, Pollack is deaf, so she wasn't able to speak to anyone over the phone.
Just before her grandmother's 103rd birthday, Zavitz-Jones started working on a way to help move Pollack out of the facility and into her home.
For her 103rd birthday in June, Pollack just wanted to have 'a burger and a beer'
Pollack wasn't able to leave on the day of her June 16 birthday but she and her family had a socially distanced celebration outside her facility.
Weeks later, Zavitz-Jones had her grandmother discharged from the assisting living residence so she could move in with her.
While in the car after getting her dream birthday meal — a burger and beer — Pollack told her granddaughter that she wanted to mark the occasion with a tattoo.
"'I said, 'Granny, where did that come from?'" Zavitz-Jones said. "She just said, 'I just think it's time.'"
Two days later, Zavitz-Jones watched as Pollack sat in the chair at a tattoo parlor and requested a small green frog design.
"She's always loved frogs. She has frog containers, ornaments, knick-knacks, and lawn ornaments," she said.
Pollack didn't move a muscle while getting the tattoo — which is located on her arm below her elbow — and said it was painless.
Zavitz-Jones said that her grandmother absolutely loves her new tattoo and likes showing it off to anyone who asks.
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