This granny was finally ready to be a grad.
A New Hampshire grandmother barred from graduating college more than 60 years ago because she got pregnant finally clinched her diploma this commencement season.
Joan Alexander, 88, received the long-overdue honor last month from the University of Maine and completed her dream of getting a degree in education after one of her daughters, Tracy, reached out to the school earlier this year.
“I didn’t realize that it would mean so much to me, but I now feel that a hole in my heart has been healed,” a grateful Alexander said in a press release issued by the university.
She likely is the oldest graduate in the school’s history, the university said.
She should have obtained her degree in 1959, but at the time she wasn’t allowed to student teach – a requirement for graduation – because she was pregnant with her and her husband’s first of four daughters.
But Associate Dean for the College of Education and Human Development Justin Dimmel and other officials determined this year that when Alexander worked as a full-time aide for a preschool program in the early 1980s, that was enough to satisfy the mandate.
Dimmel said he was moved by Alexander’s story and said her “commitment to completing her undergraduate education was inspiring to me, my colleagues and the graduating class of 2025.”
While Alexander couldn’t make the trip to walk across the stage at the commencement ceremony on May 11, Tracy and granddaughter Isabel Beck attended instead. During the celebration, school president Joan Ferrini-Mundy gave Alexander a shoutout.
“It would have been wonderful for my mother to be able to attend commencement in person, but being there with my own daughter was very moving for me,” Tracy said.
“Everyone I met was so excited to have been able to help make this happen. I really felt that my mother was seen and recognized.”
The octogenarian graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Education.
Alexander dutifully raised her four daughters, sometimes by herself for months at a time because her husband was a member of the Coast Guard.
The couple now lives in New Hampshire with one of their daughters, where Alexander has volunteered for her church, library and even a local elementary school at times.
“My parents did not complete college, so this was important to me,” the grandmother said in the school press release.
“My husband and four daughters have their college degrees, so I was the only one amongst my husband and daughters who had not received a college degree. It gives me a sense of closure and accomplishment.”
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