The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to
get to know someone we didn’t already know.
I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I turned
round to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me
with a smile that lit up her entire being.
She said, “Hi handsome. My name is Rose. I’m eighty-seven years old. Can I give
you a hug?”
I laughed and enthusiastically responded, “Of course you may!” and she gave me
a giant squeeze.
“Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?” I asked.
She jokingly replied, “I’m here to meet a rich husband, get married, and have a
couple of kids…”
“No seriously,” I asked. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking
on this challenge at her age.
“I always dreamed of having a college education and now I’m getting one!” she
told me.
After class, we walked to the student union building and shared a chocolate
milkshake. We became instant friends. Every day for the
next three months, we would leave class together and talk nonstop. I was always
mesmerized listening to this “time machine” as she shared her wisdom and
experience with me.
Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made
friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she revelled in the
attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it
up.
At the end of the semester, we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet.
I’ll never forget what she taught us. She was introduced and stepped up to
the podium.
As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she dropped her three by five
cards on the floor. Frustrated and a little embarrassed she leaned into the
microphone and simply said, “I’m sorry I’m so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent
and this whiskey is killing me! I’ll never get my speech back in order so let
me just tell you what I know.”
As we laughed, she cleared her throat and began, “We do not stop playing because
we are old; we grow old because we stop playing. There are only four secrets
to staying young, being happy and achieving success. You have to laugh and find
humour every day.
You’ve got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die.
We have so many people walking around who are dead and don’t even know it!
There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up.
If you are nineteen years old, lie in bed for one full year, and don’t do one
productive thing, you will turn twenty years old.
If I am eighty-seven years old, stay in bed for a year, and never do anything I
will turn eighty-eight.
Anybody can grow older. That doesn’t take any talent or ability. The idea is to
grow up by always finding opportunity in change.
Have no regrets.
The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what we did, but rather for things
we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets.”
She concluded her speech by courageously singing “The Rose.”
She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them out in our daily
lives.
At the year’s end, Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those
years ago. One week after graduation, Rose died peacefully in her sleep.
Over two thousand-college students attended, her funeral in tribute to the
wonderful woman who taught by example that it’s never too late to be all
you can possibly be.
These words have been passed along in loving memory of ROSE.
REMEMBER, GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY. GROWING UP IS OPTIONAL.
We make a Living by what we get; We make a Life by what we give."
Roger Vivier 1960's
