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My 92 Year Old Grandma Shows the World that It’s Never Too Late

30,000 likes and counting. That’s what the video of my grandmother getting her honorary high school diploma/certificate of attendance has gotten.

For years, my grandmother known as GG by her great-grandchildren has wanted her high school diploma. And she didn’t quit school by choice. She just could no longer attend after suffering a foot injury and losing her father.

She was one of 33 children and had to help her mother even while spending all of her teenage years on crutches.
Although she was strikingly beautiful, she always walked with a bit of a limp after having a bone removed from her foot due to the injury.

Even without her diploma, she went on to live a decent life.

She worked at Shelby County Hospital, married our grandfather, and had twin daughters. The daughters had nine children (I’m the first of my mom’s) who are all grown now with fourteen children of their own.

As I explain in my book, my grandmother is a big part of the reason I survived as a teenage mother. I can’t thank her enough for her help with my baby while finished high school and started college. She was 72 years old then.

None of her children are rich (financially) by any means, but we take care of ourselves. And, most importantly, we take care of Grandma. To look at her is to see timeless beauty, but to hear her talk is to feel her love for her family (she knows everyone’s birthday…even her first cousin’s daughter’s husband’s). And best of all is her sense of humor. She laughs, and she makes you laugh. She takes no regular medication and is sharper than anyone I know.

She’s smart and current.

I’ll never forget the time she asked me, “What’s the difference between Facebook and Twitter?” She knows all about Facebook and asks each time you take her picture, “Are you gone put that on Facebook?”. She just needed to understand Twitter.

Who at 92 even cares? Only my beautiful Grandma.

So that’s why after decades of living without a high school diploma, she still wanted hers.

Not only did she get it, but the world gets to see it.

My mom sent the simple video we recorded at Grandma’s 92nd birthday dinner to a local news station, and the rest is history. People from all over the world are congratulating my grandmother on her accomplishment.

Of course, a few negative people ask what’s the point, and I love when the rest of the world says what all of Grandma’s children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren would say. And they don’t feel the need to be nice about it all.

She deserves her high school diploma. She deserves anything in the world that she wants regardless of or especially because of her age. Her wisdom. Her beauty both inside and out.

So congratulations to the most beautiful woman in the world! You deserve for the world to know what everyone who knows you already does – You are simply the best!

Here’s the news clip that has gone around the world!

 

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I’m Summer Owens, and my passion is helping youth and young adults realize success no matter what obstacles they face. As an international resilience and leadership keynote speaker, author, S.O. What! Success Coach, and creator of the S.O. What! Literacy, Life Skills, and Character Education curriculum, I empower people to say, “So what!” to even their greatest challenges.  provide a framework to help people see past their challenges and focus on solutions using the S.O. What! Success System (Overcome Obstacles + Eliminate Excuses + Calculate Choices = S.O. What! Success). Through keynotes, workshops, books, online courses, and workbooks, I use life’s challenges and my own story of resilience as a rape survivor and teen mom success story to help others confidently pursue their dreams.

Looking for an inspiring college motivational speaker? A high school literacy curriculum? A middle school life skills workbook? A great example for teen mothers? A women’s empowerment or single mother’s conference speaker?  I’m your girl and will help any audience say, “S.O. What!”.

 

www.SummerOwens.com