Graduating high school is something most of us take for granted. But when 97 year-old Margaret Thome Bekema needed to leave her education behind almost 80 years ago to care for her dying mother and younger siblings, Bekema regretting having to give up her education.
That’s why receiving her honourary high school diploma from Catholic Central High means so much to her. In a special ceremony attended by Bekema’s family and friends at Missouri’s Yorkshire and Stoneridge Manor, the grateful grandmother donned a blue graduation cap - complete with gold honour tassels - as principal Greg Deja handed her her diploma.
The diploma is dated with the year Bekema would have graduated with her friends - 1936.
"I thank you from the bottom of my heart,'' said Bekema with tears in her eyes, recalling the circumstances that saw her leaving high school in her junior year. Her mother Katherine had cancer and her three younger siblings needed someone to take care of them. It was a big job and her father needed her help.
"I had to quit school to take over the family. It was hard, you have no idea how hard that was. I loved high school and I had lots of friends," recalled Bekema, who cooked, cleaned, and made the family’s clothing. Bekema was only 17 at the time, and says leaving school broke her heart.
"She is the type of person that whatever life hands her, she just deals with it very graciously," said Bekema’s daughter Geri Smith.
Though we know that most teens really do have hearts of gold (because we’ve talked about it here on Happy Mummy) and that any Generation Z high schooler would do everything they could do to pitch in and help their families, we especially love this story because of the way Bekema’s friends and family came together to make her dream of earning her high school diploma come true.
"She has been so self-giving all her life," said Sister Maureen Geary, who reached out to Central Catholic to see if they would be able to award Bekema the honourary diploma. Bekema cared for Geary when she was a baby when her mother was ill.
Catholic Central’s principal says that Bekema is an inspiration to the community and that her choices reflect the values the school teachers their students. "Her life has been one of sacrifice and service," said Deja during Bekema’s graduation ceremony last month.
Congratulations Margaret….you’re an inspiration to us, too.
Image Source: YouTube
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