Meet the 86-year-old widow who’s spent 10 years living on a cruise ship

86-year-old Lee Wachtstatter isn’t your ordinary cruise passenger.

More than a decade ago, not long after the death of her husband, she decided to sell her five-bedroom Florida home. But instead of downsizing, she opted for something far bigger - relocating to a cruise ship, where she’s remained ever since.

“My husband Mason introduced me to cruising," she explains in an interview with USA Today. "He was a banker and real estate appraiser and taught me to love cruising. During our 50-year marriage we took 89 cruises.

"The day before my husband died of cancer in 1997, he told me, 'Don't stop cruising.’ So here I am..."

She certainly took his request to heart. Three years were spent on board a Holland America ship; she’s been a resident on the 1,070-passenger Crystal Serenity for the last seven – longer than most of vessel’s 655 crew members, who have given her a nickname “Mama Lee”.