10 Amazing Bucket List Stories

When Thomas Neil Rodriguez discovered that his 15-year-old yellow lab, Poh, was dying, he embarked on a cross-country road trip to celebrate Poh's life.

Rodriguez and his fiancé, Yuko Ogino, crisscrossed the country visiting 35 cities and traveling 12,000 miles. They posted photos on Instagram (check out @pohthedogsbigadventure) in front of the landmarks including the Washington monument, the Hollywood sign and on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

Rodriguez reports that Poh is alive and well and says the dog "still has a lot of life in him, with little spurts of energy."

When 21-year-old Vivian Waller was diagnosed with bowel cancer, which quickly spread to her liver and lungs, she devised a bucket list to bring some meaning and joy to her final days. In addition to getting married and celebrating her daughter Sophie's 1st birthday, she dreamed of meeting Robin Williams.

In 2014, although she was unable to travel because of her illness, she got her wish.

One of her pals reached out to the beloved actor — who responded before his death with a short video clip emailed to her family. In the video, Williams tells Vivian she can "knock this off your bucket list."

Vivian's husband, Jack Waller, said his wife was thrilled beyond belief to receive the encouraging video. He decided to publicize Williams' personal message because "we love him, we want to show people how awesome a person he was.”

Vivian's bucket list also included celebrating her 21st birthday, getting married (which happened in February 2014), celebrating her daughter's first birthday, and visiting Rarotonga in the Cook Islands.

Waller moved to a hospice the same day the news of the actor's death came out on August 12, 2014. She passed away on September 28, 2014.

When Jenna Gassew and Dan Haley, both in their early 20s, learned 13 weeks into Jenna's pregnancy that their baby would be born with a rare terminal birth defect, the devout Catholics sprung into action. They decided to make the most of the pregnancy and birth and compiled a "bucket list" of activities to complete while their son was still in the womb.

Shane Michael Haley came into the world in October 2014. He was born with a neural tube defect called anencephaly, which is the absence of part of the brain and skull. His family members were all there to meet him and witness him being baptized into the Catholic faith. But just four hours after his birth, Shane died "peacefully in his mother's arms," according to a post on Facebook.

As part of their bucket list, Dan and Jenna took Shane to baseball games, brought him on a tour of New York City and painted Jenna's baby bump to look like a Jack-o'-lantern. The couple documented all their adventures on a Facebook page, Prayers For Shane, where friends were invited to share their support and blessings. It has since garnered more than 900,000 likes.

Dan and Jenna continue to celebrate the life of little Shane and are active in promoting awareness for anencephaly.

In 2014, a woman named Lauren Fern Watt took her dying dog, Gizelle, on a bucket list adventure. The 160-pound English Mastiff had been diagnosed with bone cancer, and Watt was determined to make her last days her best days.

In January 2015, after Gizelle had passed, Watt posted a slideshow on Yahoo entitled, "I Took My Dying Dog on a Bucket-List Adventure." The post quickly went viral. Watt received thousands of letters of support from around the world. She signed a book deal to write about her life with Gizelle, in the "high six figures" (rumored to be about $750,000). There's even a movie in the works.

Of her time with her four-legged friend and their adventures together Watt said, "Gizelle loved me regardless of my imperfections. This is an important lesson to remember, because, of course, no one is perfect."

What would you do if you were hurtling towards your 100th birthday? Máire Godfrey, who lives in Donnybrook, Dublin, found herself in this position last year and decided to compile her bucket list. With the gentle nudging of her granddaughter Rebecca Murray, she started a Facebook page, Mamó's Hundredth Year, where her year of discoveries has been documented.

Her husband Jim died just before his 99th birthday in 2014. The couple were golfers at Elm Park Golf Club and meeting golfer Pádraig Harrington was top of her bucket list.

She avoided ever setting foot in a courtroom (lucky her!), so a trip the local courts was a must see. “I was brought into all the sanctums where even a solicitor couldn't go,” she recalls. “It was brilliant. I sat in the dock and the judge's seat.” The Chief Justice heard about her visit and presented her with a framed photograph of the courts.

She saw her first 3D movie (Home) and feared she was going to be hit by one of the characters. “It felt like it was coming in on top of me. It was terrific.”

There were two unexpected surprises for Máire. When Facebook heard news of her bucket list, she was invited to its Dublin headquarters in March 2014. She also accidentally turned up on a television program during. The Unemployables was being filmed in Donnybrook Fair while she was shopping, and she unwittingly became an extra on the show.

56-year-old Ken Powell has had melanoma cancer since 2001, but six years ago it was classified as terminal. Since then, he's been checking off items on his bucket list. One of them is to meet the leader of his favorite band, the Foo Fighters.

Powell was scheduled to meet Dave Grohl in early 2015 when the Foo Fighters toured Australia. But Grohl came down with food poisoning and had to cancel his meet-and-greet session in Perth.

A flight attendant on an airline the Foos were on heard about Powell's bucket list and shared the story with Grohl. The star took a photo of himself saying hi to Powell, and sent it along to the ailing man with an autograph, band souvenirs and VIP tickets to the group's LA show in September 2015.

Powell's daughter set up a Facebook page as well as a Go Fund Me site to help get her dad to the concert. He has raised $25,000 to cover the expenses of the trip. Any additional funds that are collected will be donated to the Melanoma Institute of Australia.

40-year-old Joanne Milne was born with Usher syndrome, a genetic condition that leads to hearing loss and visual impairment. She has drawn up a bucket list of things to do as her vision deteriorates. She said, "I'm hopeful it (my sight loss) will stop, but no one knows. It is absolutely heartbreaking. I love life. I'm such a happy person, and I could cope if the deterioration stopped now. My tunnel is small, but it's enough to still ‘see' the world.”

Jo's bucket list includes seeing the Seven Wonders of the World, learning to play the piano, and attending Glastonbury Festival. She also oversees a speech therapy program for deaf children and continues her efforts to make British Sign Language compulsory in schools.

In fall 2013, Pittsburgh teen Daneen Kowall was given just weeks to live after being diagnosed with aggressive, terminal bone cancer.

With the time he had left, he made his bucket list. One of his wishes was to get 10,000 likes on his Facebook page called Devin's Dreams. Almost immediately, his page had 17,000 likes. Today, it has more than 21,000 likes.

Weeks and months passed. For a while, Devin defied the odds. He retired his bucket list, saying it depressed him and made him feel like he was going to die – he just wanted to live his life as a normal teen.

For a while, he did. But on January 2, 2015 Devin passed away, a few days shy of his 16th birthday.

Zach Parnaby, a 22-month-old boy who was born healthy, was diagnosed with Krabbe Leukodystrophy. His family is working to cross items off his bucket list as he battles the terminal genetic disease that doctors say will soon rob him of his ability to walk, see, hear, and speak.

Zach's list includes meeting Mickey Mouse, swimming in the sea, building a snowman, riding a fire engine, meeting Santa, seeing a real bear, having his own dog, and a few other things.

The family has already crossed off several items on the list and is chronicling their journey on his fundraising page. So far, Zach has gone on a boat trip and has taken a ride on Thomas the Tank Engine. He also met a few Newcastle United players.

Zach's parents, Lindsey and Ben, both 29, are also working to raise awareness about his disease. They not only hope to find a cure, but would like the disease to be routinely screened at birth.

The chance to plunk himself down in the driver's seat of a high-end sports car was something Jason Gordon had on his bucket list — along with a night of Blackjack in Niagara Falls and taking in a kickboxing match in Thailand.

Gordon has had a lot weighing on his mind since being diagnosed with terminal cancer in April 2015. However, being able to tool around Toronto and the surrounding area in a $300,000 Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder with his twin brother was just the kind of distraction the 23-year-old had been looking for.

Enter Richie Hughes, owner of Toronto-based VIP Exotic Car Rentals. He handed Gordon the keys to the hotrod as the latter lunched with his twin, Jacob, on the patio of a downtown restaurant. Hughes, who heard about Gordon's situation through mutual friends, arrived with a set of instructions: Take the car, have a blast, bring it back when you're done – no charge.

Hughes, who recently launched his company, rents out the Lamborghini for as much as $1,400 per day, but wanted to help Gordon live his dreams. He said, "One of his last wishes was to drive an exotic car, so I organized it through friends that knew him and knew me, and I just said, ‘I'll give it to you for a day. Go have fun.'”

Gordon has a GoFundMe page to help pay for the rest of his bucket list. He said, “If it weren't for this bad situation, this never would have happened, and I get to share it with my brother.”