90-YEAR-OLD WOMAN FINALLY GETS DEGREE

Joyce DeFauw started her first year at university in 1951. She attended Northern Illinois University and planned to finish her degree.

But, then she met a man and after three and a half years of studying, she decided to drop out.

Now, 71 years after she dropped out, she graduated from the same university. Not only is this a remarkable story because she managed to go back and finish the degree that she started, but Joyce is now 90 years old.

At least the man she left college for was worth it. They got married in 1955 and had three children together. Don Freeman Sr. passed away and Joyce then remarried five years later.

With her late husband Roy DeFauw, she had another six children, including two sets of twins.

Joyce is now the proud grandmother to 17 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren.

Just before Covid, Joyce shared her disappointment with her kids over the fact that she never finished her degree. Her kids then encouraged her to go back to the same university which Joyce did.

This time around it was much different though. She didn’t attend any classes in person, but rather behind a computer screen from her retirement home.

It was Joyce’s first computer and her kids had to show her how to use it. Even though Covid Joyce managed to get her degree this time.

Her comment? “It’s nice to finish something you started.”

Image credit: CNN