Seventy years after starting her studies, Maryette McFarland from Londonderry was finally able to graduate from university with a degree in English Literature.
“I can hardly believe it, and it’s taken me quite a long time,” she said. The 90-year-old was the oldest of more than 300 graduates at the Open University’s ceremony in Belfast on Tuesday.
And her story is one of determination, patience and a little help from friends, tutors and family.
‘I had a bit of time to spare’
Ms. McFarland had originally started university in Dublin back in the 1960s, but love intervened before she finished her degree. She said she dropped out of her course and got married instead.
Although it took a few years, she decided to study again with the Open University while recovering from a car accident. “I had a bit of time to spare and I thought I’d like to do something,” Ms. McFarland told BBC News NI.
Studying online had proved a challenge at times. However, she said her family – including her four children, and grandchildren and great-grandchildren – had been “wonderful”.
“I’m very bad online but I had a lot of help from the family,” she said, adding that her daughter-in-law taught her how to type.
“I know they’re there if I want them and they help me in every way they can.
“But, you know, I think they think for granny to have a degree, it’s a bit odd!”
Ms McFarland also said she had a “lovely” tutor who provided “a lot of support”.
‘It’s never too late’
Her eldest daughter Shauna Gailey accompanied her mother to the graduation ceremony in the Waterfront Hall.
“I am just so proud of her,” Ms Gailey said.
“She is a B.A. undergraduate full-on at the age of 90, that’s just so exciting for her and for the rest of us.
“She’s always regretted not finishing the Trinity Dublin degree, we all knew that, but she had four children, she had a busy life and all the rest of it.”
Ms Gailey said her mother had really thrown herself into her studies.
“She used to sit on her sofa, surrounded by piles of books, with her laptop and tablet in front of her,” she recalled.
All of the family came to Belfast “for a big family lunch”, before watching Maryette graduate.
And Maryette had a message for anyone who thinks they are too old to learn new things.
“If I can do it, anybody can do it. It’s never too late.”
