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[NawlinsGirl]

Ninety-year-old Laura Thresher Johnston will again make the record books when she accepts a master's degree in history next weekend from Sam Houston State University. As the oldest student in her class, she'll also become one of the oldest alumni of the 126-year-old school. Just a few years ago, she was the university's oldest undergraduate when she received a degree in Spanish at 85.

She takes her achievements in stride.

"It's an accomplishment that more and more people should take advantage of," she said. "When I first came here, there was hardly anybody in their mid-30s, 40s, 50s. Now you see them all over the campus."

Even after a quarter century in Texas, Johnston's voice identifies her Boston background. The 1933 high school graduate grew up in Massachusetts, and worked as a nurse in Boston and Salem. She raised three daughters with her husband of 25 years, and later moved to Florida, where she worked as a waitress in the Miami area.

Full Story: Ninety-year-old former Boston nurse to get master's degree [WHDH-TV,MA]

[3boyzmom]

You go on Girl! Congratulations to Ms. Johnston! That must be someone who loves learning, for learning's sake. There was a lady in my nursing class who was almost 65 at graduation; she said she had no intention of working as a nurse, as she was at retirement age. She said she had just always dreamed of being a nurse, and being able to say that she had achieved that. So she went through the program, studied hard, made good grades, and exhibited such a caring way with her patients. At graduation, she was so proud to have made her accomplishment. I don't think she ever accepted a job; she was happy as a housewife and grandmother; but it was a dream fulfilled. Yay! for people who go after their dreams!

[rn in training]

PEOPLE LIKE HER MAKE A PERSON LIKE ME SEE HOPE. IT SEEMS THAT EVEN IF YOU BEEN THROUGH THINGS AND HAD A HARD LIFE, YOU STILL CAN DO IT.