Retaining the Power of Possibility

A few years ago, I met the mother of a colleague. A little older than me, she had - at the age of 60 - decided she wanted to become a nurse (like one of her daughters)... So she went back to school, graduating with a nursing degree at the age of 65! I met her five years later. In those five years, she had worked as a nurse in a retirement residence in the southern USA, then returned to Canada, where she was working - at age 70 - as a visiting nurse, driving around to help the sick in their homes.

I was 50 at the time, wondering if I should go back to school to become a journalist ... (a career goal in high school). I ended up doing a brief summer internship at our local newspaper, and in the end, deciding against a career change... fearing that the learning curve was too challenging for me at that stage of life.

Sometimes, even now, I wonder: What if?!

But I continue to be inspired by women who refuse to give up - who have retained the power of possibility in their lives, the sense that they are still able to get out there and fulfill their dreams!

Like a 94-year-old steno-typist from my church who still helps out her boss of 40 years from time to time, working part-time in his office when he isn't playing golf in Florida. (They send a taxi to pick her up these days, as the daily bus commute is taxing!)

I love to get dressed up and go to work when they need me, she tells me. Her beaming face reveals how invigorating the challenge still is... at 94!

Or this woman (above) whose popular newspaper column - about birdwatching - I read for years. She started to write it at age 59 - and finally stopped - about a month ago - at age 98!

(I wonder what made her finally quit!)