At the age of eighty-three, Mom returned to college. Having a wonderful sense of humor, an inquisitive mind, and a lifetime of worthwhile experience to share, Mom became a favorite of
students and faculty alike. She graduated with an undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Dallas at the age of eighty-seven, but she wasn’t done yet. At the age of ninety Mom received her Masters degree in Psychology from UT Dallas, and since has taken a position with the Center for Vital Longevity, a University-of-Texas-funded research center for the study of the aging brain, where she lectures on the benefits of lifelong learning. Add to that a book that she will soon publish on the subject of education for senior citizens, and you can begin to appreciate the enormity of her accomplishments. My mother is oblivious to age. In her late eighties, she traveled to Italy with a group of undergraduates as part of a university-sponsored summer program. That was nothing compared to the following summer, when she spent a week on a marine research vessel off the coast of Texas as part of another universitysponsored course she elected to take. Mom was telling me that she received a call from the photographers that took her graduation picture at her Masters graduation ceremony. They had lost track of which graduate belonged to what picture and they were trying to decide which graduation photo was xii