To live for the moment, you have to be able to dream and know what you really want out of life, as well as find the good side to every day. We came across this truly touching story about an elderly lady who followed her dreams till the end — and her life was richer because of it. Absolutely soul-stirring!

’At one of our lectures, our professor said we had a new student in the group. At that moment I felt a light touch on the shoulder. Looking around, I saw a little, thin old lady smiling at me with such sincerity that my face immediately lit up too.

“Hello, my dear! My name’s Rose, and I’m 87 years old“, she said. ”Can I sit down?“

I smiled and moved over to give her a place. I suddenly felt like joking.

“Sure, take a seat. May I ask what brings you to the university at such an age?”

”I’m here because I want to meet a rich husband and give birth to a whole heap of children“, the old woman said, and gave me a wink.

”Seriously?” I was rapidly liking Rose more and more.

“But seriously…I always wanted to get a higher education, and now I’m here” Rose replied.

After the lecture we went to the cafeteria and had lunch together. Since that day we’ve had dinner together every day for three months. Rose became the life of the party whenever the students got together. All of them gladly talked to her and never showed any hostility or meanness.

At the end of the semester, Rose was invited to give an address at the graduation ceremony. When she was walking up to the podium, she dropped the pieces of paper with her speech. Embarrassed, Rose tried to pick them up, but didn’t manage to find all of them.

“I’m sorry, but I’ve become so absent-minded over the past few years. For the sake of my husband, I stopped drinking beer, so now I get drunk much faster — on whiskey,“ she joked. ”I’ll never get my notes in order now, so I’ll just say what I think.”

When the laughter had died down, she coughed, and started her speech:

“We stop playing because we grow up. We grow up because we stop playing. There are only four secrets of lasting youth, happiness and success. You have to smile every day and not take life too seriously. You need to have a dream. When you stop dreaming, you die. There are so many people around us who are already dead, but they don’t even realise it! There’s a huge difference between ageing and growing up. If you’re 19 years old and you have a whole year to lie on the couch and do nothing, you’ll reach 20. If I have lie on the couch for a year and do nothing, I’ll eventually turn 88. It’s easy enough to get older. We don’t need any talent or gift to get old. You have a gift when you know how to discover new opportunities offering you the chance to change yourself. Never regret anything! Old people don’t regret what they did — they regret what they didn’t do. The only people who are afraid of dying are the ones who have too many regrets.”

The old woman finished her speech with a phrase normally found in letters — “All the best, Rose.” and returned to her seat. Everyone sat silently, digesting what they had heard.

A year later, Rose got the degree she had dreamed of a long time. A week later, she died quietly in her sleep. More than two thousand students came to her funeral. They honoured the memory of that short, sparkling who had shown by her personal example that is never too late to become the person you want to be.

It’s real easy to get old. Getting old is inevitable. But growing up — that’s a matter of choice.

Source