{"id":18573,"date":"2024-06-12T10:30:54","date_gmt":"2024-06-12T14:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=18573"},"modified":"2024-06-12T10:30:54","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T14:30:54","slug":"85-year-old-grandmother-graduates-high-school-with-honorary-diploma-im-thankful-to-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2024\/06\/85-year-old-grandmother-graduates-high-school-with-honorary-diploma-im-thankful-to-god.html","title":{"rendered":"85-Year-Old Grandmother Graduates High School With Honorary Diploma: ‘I’m Thankful to God’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"shirley<\/a>
Brianna Robinson\/Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An 85-year-old Georgia woman recently graduated from high school, 67 years after her original would-be graduation date, in front of her family and the community she steadily serves. Shirley Smith of Americus was surprised to find out on her 85tth birthday that she would soon receive an honorary high school diploma thanks to Eric Finch, chief of police of Montezuma Police Department, for her dedication to her family and unabated support of their education over the years.<\/p>\n

Smith told Fox News Digital in a video interview, \u201cI\u2019m thankful. I think it\u2019s an honor, and I think it\u2019s a blessing.\u201d Smith grew up on a tobacco farm in Wilmington, North Carolina. In 1956, her father was pressed with the challenge of earning more in order to raise his six children after tobacco rates fell. Smith and her siblings were then uprooted to Somerville, New Jersey. She said, \u201cI was going to the 10th grade, and I told him the biggest mistake that I made, I think, was telling him that I didn\u2019t want to go to school. And he said, \u2018Go to work.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

First, she took a job at a dry cleaner, then at a pocketbook factory.\u00a0 Shortly after that, she got married and started a family of her own, later moving them to Georgia. Though she considered vocational school a few times, her goals of caring for her children and\u00a0raising her family\u00a0took precedence over a degree, she said.\u00a0 Smith said education was a priority in her home, however \u2014 and that if her children were going to live under her roof, they would receive an education. They didn\u2019t seem to mind. \u201cMatter of fact, they cried to go to school. Even when it was snowing, they wanted to go to school,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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A post shared by Rap \/ Hip Hop Daily ? (@madchilltvofficial)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n