Lost Love and Lady Liberty: Foundation Helps Seniors' Wishes Come True

Oct. 28, 2010 — -- Emmanuel Herzberger became fascinated with the Statue of Liberty while in the third grade, after his schoolteacher visited and returned to tell her class about the trip.

Herzberger thought he'd get a peek during his return home from the Berlin Airlift in 1949 -- he served in the military as an aircraft instrument specialist -- but his ship sailed into New Jersey.

"I got on the bow of the ship and I said, 'Man, I'm gonna see that statue' and they turned and went into the other harbor," he told ABC News. "I didn't get to see it so I vowed that someday I'd get to come back here."

The next day he flew to Illinois, where he became a husband, a father and a teacher of 34 years.

More than 70 years later, Herzberger, 83, of Pueblo, Colo., finally got his wish this month, thanks to Jeremy Bloom's Wish of a Lifetime foundation, which helps seniors fulfill their bucket lists.

"Awesome," said Herzberger as he viewed Lady Liberty with his family. "I waited for this for many, many years."

His daughter Linda Kimball said it was nice to give back to her father, now in palliative care and suffering from stage 4 metastatic colon cancer. "We owe it all to these folks," she said of the foundation.

Jeremy Bloom knows about dreams coming true.

As a child hitting on the slopes, he dreamed of skiing in the Olympics and it happened twice. A standout on his high school and college football teams, he aspired to play in the NFL and he did as a wide receiver.