Make a Wish for Seniors: Twilight Wishes fulfills the needs and wants of the older generation
Written by Tracey Weiss
Photography submitted
Sherry and Jim Libby were married on February 21, 2025, at their senior community in Hartford with everyone in their building in attendance.
“The security guard in their building officiated. Two chefs gave me away. Our family was here. One of the aides was Jim’s best girl,” Sherry said. Her wedding dress, the catered meal, the cake, even a bridal shower with bagels and champagne, was paid for by the Connecticut Chapter of the Twilight Wishes Foundation.
It might not have happened otherwise. The two are on a budget. “There was no way could we have afforded to do that,” Jim said. “Twilight Wishes is phenomenal.”
“They’re my friends,” Sherry added.
The Twilight Wishes Foundation’s mission is “to honor and enrich the lives of deserving seniors through intergenerational Twilight Wish celebrations.” Think Make-A-Wish for seniors. Founded in 2003, the national non-profit is almost entirely volunteer-run and has 25 chapters, including one in West Hartford. Of the more than 7,400 wishes granted, one at a time, West Hartford’s chapter, run by Andrea Hoisl, delivered its 400th wish this year.
Hoisl and her longtime friend and Twilight Wishes volunteer Mary Rose McHugh were at the Libbys’ senior living space as part of another event, and NBC Connecticut reporters and cameramen were there, too, to film the event for a segment on the news later in the day. They happened to overhear Jim talking to the local NBC folks.
“I want to ask her to marry me. Will you film it?” he said to the cameraman. “They did. I got her a commitment ring. They put that wish in.”
While Hoisl and McHugh planned the wedding, they still filled out the application to make it happen. Most wishes come through the application process by the senior requesting the wish, or through a friend or family member.
Twilight Wishes was founded in 2003 by Cass Forkin. The story goes that “she was having lunch with her daughter at a diner in Bucks County, Pennsylvania when she noticed a group of elderly women counting out their change to pay for their buffet lunch. As a gesture of kindness, Cass anonymously paid their bill. The women, grateful and touched by this generosity, insisted their waitress tell them who paid their bill. When the waitress pointed to Cass, the women came to her table and asked her to stand. One of the women hugged Cass and said, “we didn’t know there were people like you anymore.” Forkin realized there was no organization that could help make seniors wishes come true.
Four years ago, Hoisl started a chapter after catching a news feature about a woman from Connecticut who was having a reunion with her 80-year-old sisters. She needed a companion to travel. “I looked it up and I thought, ‘that’s a great organization,’” she said.
The national office processes the paperwork. “I don’t do paperwork and volunteers have no paperwork,” McHugh said. “We just go out and volunteer.”
Hoisl recounted a memorable wish the chapter fulfilled. “There is a woman who lived in Bridgeport. Her sister was in her 80s and living in New Jersey. They had stopped seeing each other. They talked on the phone every night, but her wish was to see her. We got her a limo, and the two had lunch at their favorite restaurant. We gave her flowers to give to her sister. She called the next day. She was crying. ‘I never thought I would see my sister alive again,’” she said.
Hoisl said the biggest problem is that “seniors don’t ask for anything.” And so often, their wishes are for simple needs.
“They need their life enriched just as much as anyone else,” McHugh said. “My favorite wish was a mattress for a Nigerian couple. Their daughter brought them over to the U.S. They wound up in low-income housing and wanted beds. I delivered the beds. They were like little kids—bouncing on them. We made them up with pillows and sheets and they were grinning ear to ear. The husband said, ‘tonight, I sleep like a king.’
“I was so glad we got to be there.”
“We got a package form a corrections facility with a letter and a wish,” Hoisl said. “A man in prison wanted a wish for his mother, who wasn’t going to live much longer. He wanted us to buy her a sweatsuit and two bouquets of flowers. He said he and his brother had made mistakes, and it was not a reflection on her, Granting his wish was difficult because there was a ‘no contact’ order. We finally brought it to her and she just sobbed. “Wishes like that you realize what a privilege it is to be able to do something like that for someone,” she added.
“We put low-income seniors first, but they are not always a priority,” Hoisl said. “We had a gentleman (Norman, a war veteran) put in a wish. He was turning 100 and he had no one to celebrate with. We started the process. The mayor said she would give him a proclamation. The VFW called, ‘can we come?’ The Boy Scouts made 100 cards, and more than 50 people showed up at Town Hall! That wish cost us nothing. Norman said ‘Today was the best day of my life. I didn’t realize what a big deal turning 100 was, until today.’”
According to Hoisl, Everyone who gets a wish fulfilled also gets a certificate generated by the CT Chapter, a purple star, and yellow smiley face balloons. “The star is the TW symbol and the smiley face is to remind of the joy they have brought to others!” she said.
Indeed, the wishes come in all shapes and sizes. A Hartford woman and her three friends went on a sleigh ride in Haddam. A woman at the beginning of dementia and needs a wheelchair was able to go see Andrea Boccelli in concert with her granddaughter. A group wish from a facility in Torrington received a computer, printer and box of paper so they could use it in their community room. A non-verbal woman with mobility challenges went on a hot air balloon ride in the Farmington Valley with her daughter. A Waterbury man wanted to spend a day feeding, grooming and walking them. A falconer visited a Hartford woman and let her hold the falcon.
Hoisl and volunteers spread the word about the chapter through visits to senior centers, town events and other facilities and functions. “We give presentations. We talk to church groups. Word spreads,” Hoisl said.
The average wish, according to Hoisl, costs about $1,500, so they fundraise through a number of avenues, including the annual golf tournament at Lyman’s Golf Course in Middlefield. They also accept private donations and grants.
And even if they have to say no very rarely to a wish, “we always offer an alternative if we can’t do something,” McHugh said.
There are about 30 volunteers at the chapter who do a variety of jobs, and Hoisl said they are always looking for more helpers. “Whatever time you can give,” Hoisl said.
And in a perfect future picture of Twilight Wishes in Connecticut, Hoisl hopes to expand. “We do a lot of wishes in New Haven, Milford, Putman, Tolland, Stonington…we hope to someday have a chapter in each county in the state.”
For now, though they’ll continue to provide wishes, big and small, to seniors. Sherry Libby recalls when the folks from Twilight Wishes took her friend and three others for a sleigh ride at a farm.
“It was wonderful,” Jim added. “Because of the things they can do, it makes seniors happy.” WHL
Go to www.twilightwishct.org for more information.