Hortense Anglin remembers feeling impressed watching her youthful sister Ossie Lindo settle for her degree from Toronto’s York University at a commencement ceremony 4 years in the past.
And final Thursday, it was lastly her flip.
To the tune of thunderous applause and a standing ovation, the 85-year-old acquired her likelihood to stroll onstage and obtain her bachelor of arts in spiritual research at York, which additionally occurs to be the place her granddaughter went to university.
“Oh, it was the pleasure of my life,” stated Anglin, a Jamaican-born Canadian.
“It has been a journey that crammed my days, a few of my nights, and a journey that I loved with out compunction.”
Anglin graduated from highschool in Jamaica greater than half a century in the past. She was going to proceed her training a number of years in the past however needed to shelve that plan when her husband of 52 years fell sick.
The resident of Markham, just north of Toronto, says she realized to stay independently after her husband died in 2014 earlier than venturing on her path towards increased training. She began with a bridging program earlier than embarking on her degree, and realized easy methods to navigate on-line studying when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020.
It was all in the footsteps of Lindo, who did it first at the age of 79.
“Getting my degree was fantastic. I really feel that very same pleasure once I see my sister getting hers,” stated Lindo, a Scarborough resident.
“And I do know that that is just the starting for us oldies. We’re prepared. We’re able to rock.”
Anglin says getting her degree has allowed her to study extra about herself, broaden her information throughout totally different topics, and it is given her a newfound confidence to specific herself academically. In reality, the degree was just the first step in her journey — she says she already began an anthropology course this fall.
“York continues to be there and I’m nonetheless right here desirous to study.”
She hopes different seniors on the fence about returning to high school due to their age additionally take the plunge.
“Too previous? No, not ever,” stated Anglin.