By Samantha Lock
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A 104-year-old woman, born before women won the right to vote and having lived through two global pandemics, says she can now die happy after casting her vote.
The New York woman, named only as Ruth, was accompanied by friend Faith Salie and Salie's two young children as she took to the Manhattan streets to make her vote count.
"Today I had the honor of escorting my 104.5 year-old friend Ruth to vote," writer and performer Faith Salie wrote over Twitter on Sunday.
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Salie, who included a video of her elderly friend pounding the pavement with her walker, said Ruth was born in 1916, before women had voting rights.
"Her first vote was for FDR. Her dad died of the flu during the pandemic of 1918, when she was two. This is her voting story today," Salie continued.
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In footage taken from the day, Ruth is seen crossing Broadway towards Lincoln Center, a neighborhood Salie says the woman has lived in since the Nixon administration.
The heartwarming clip shows Ruth holding Salie's 6-year-old daughter's hand as the pair make their way to the voting station.
Far from frail or infirm, the elderly woman is smartly dressed in a black coat, hat and boldly colored scarf. An "I voted early" sticker is pinned to her coat.
"I want to vote more than anything just today before I shoot that a**hole Trump," Ruth tells her friend.
Her license, which shows a date of birth of March 1916, is handed to officials who Salie described as being "unbelievably kind.
"She filled in that circle HARD," Salie said. "When she inserted her ballot to scan, the place went nuts. Some were in tears; everyone made sure Ruth went to the front of the line.
"We walked out to the street and all the folks in line for hours cheered her ... You could hear the claps for up and down the blocks."
The milestone vote culminated in an emotional day for the 104-year-old who Salie later described as being "overcome with emotion."
"She had to sit in her walker to have a cry," the elderly woman's friend said.
Ruth reveals she voted for Biden, describing her decision to vote as "the most important thing" she could do.
"I feel I did the best statement I could do under terrible circumstances. I hope that my vote counts as the vote of millions. Now I can die happy."
The video has since gone viral, clocking up over one million views in less than 24 hours.
Newsweek has contacted Faith Salie and Ruth for comment.
One man, who recognised Ruth from an environmental rally, replied with a photo of the long-time activist holding a sign reading "Science not Silence."
"I got to meet Ruth at The March for Science!" he said.
Ruth's vote follows that of a 102-year-old Illinois woman who was photographed in a full-body protective suit while putting her ballot in the mail.
Beatrice Lumpkin, a retired teacher from Chicago, suited up for the occasion to protect herself from contracting COVID-19.
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