I work for a library supply company and one of the items we supply is books. One day I saw the title of a book was The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read by Rita Lorraine Hubbard and Oge Mora. I was intrigued and had to look it up. This is an amazing true story about an unbelievable woman who learned to read at 116 years old. Most people sit around by the time they are seniors and very few people make it to 116 years old but Mary Walker spent the twilight years of her very long life learning to read, write and do basic math. She remained adventurous until the end even taking her first plane ride at the age of 118.
The book was written for children but I think it should be given to everyone who turns 50 and certainly to everyone who retires as a reminder that this is a time when you have a choice. You can sit back and wait to die or you can keep going to a better future however short or long that future may be. Mary Walker was born a slave and suffered many tragedies. Her husband and all three of her children had died before she started taking reading classes. No one would have blamed her if she had sat in a rocking chair and and looked out the window until the end of her days but she learned to read and she continued to interact with the world and do new and different things!!!
I turned 54 in September and, though I would love to think that I will live to see 116 and still have more than half of my life ahead of me, realism says that I won't likely make it more than 20 years or so if I'm fortunate and less if I'm not. Still, I, like Mary Walker, get up every day with a choice. Do I coast to my retirement and eventual death or do I get up each day with a desire to learn new things and adventure past my front door? My choice is that Mary Walker is my hero and as I age I want to be just like her.
