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'Like somebody opened a chapter in my life': 89-year-old gets her GED

Margaret McDevitt-Boyle says it's never too late to get an education.

At the age of 89, she has started taking classes at the Saint John campus of University of New Brunswick with the long-term goal of getting her bachelor's degree.

Born the year of the Wall Street crash in 1929, McDevitt-Boyle left school at the age of 14 to take a job at the T.S. Simms paintbrush factory in Saint John.

It was just expected that she would chip in to support her siblings.

"There was seven younger than myself at the time," said McDevitt-Boyle. "We had very little."

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She remained too busy to harbour regret. By 25, she was married with six children.

She would also open a daycare, which she ran for 34 years.

Reflecting on what she missed over the years, she said she always felt like an outsider.

When conversation turned to school and where people went, she learned to be evasive.

The young people, they never made me feel that I was old. - Margaret McDevitt-Boyle

"You know what I would do? I would think of something to get out of their sight."

Then about five years ago, McDevitt-Boyle said, one of her own grown children encouraged her to try to get her GED.

She started with evening classes at St. Patrick's School on the lower west side. Next came three years at Crescent Valley Resource Centre, where she plowed slowly but surely through subjects such as geometry and algebra.

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McDevitt-Boyle still treasures her workbooks.

"That was the most wonderful rewarding portion of my schooling because if I got stuck in anything, it would be a Chinese, Vietnamese, South Korean, African and Saudi Arabian … all of these, they would help me."

"The young people, they never made me feel that I was old."

Over the summer, her diploma arrived in the mail. There was also a small ceremony, attended by family, where she finally got to wear a cap and gown.

Martha McDevitt/Submitted
Martha McDevitt/Submitted

"It's just like somebody opened a chapter in my life," McDevitt-Boyle said, looking back at the photos from that day.

"It's wonderful. It's beautiful."

In September, McDevitt-Boyle started attending English 101, where everyone is really nice, she said.

She drives herself to the Tucker Park campus.

"I'm only taking one course right now because I don't know anything about this and I need to know how things work," she said.

"But I don't ever intend to stop."