MIAMI (WSVN) - Most grandmothers — especially in their 80s — like to just kick back and relax, but one had other ideas, and now she’s graduating from college.
A very special graduate is getting ready to take the stage; she returned to the classroom at the age of 80 to finish her education.
“Yippee, I’m at FIU,” said Arlyne Frankel.
Frankel is ready to graduate. At 85 years old, she’s getting her bachelor’s degree from Florida International University.
“It was very exciting. It was exciting to be educated,” said Frankel.
She had attended Boston University for two years before dropping out.
After living in New York for 10 years, she moved to Miami Beach with her husband and bought a boutique hotel.
“I handled the books and did the front office work, and he was very handy,” said Frankel.
Frankel was in the hotel business for 15 years before leaving, working in different jobs for the next few decades.
Then, at 80, she decided she was going back to school.
“And that’s when I decided now was the time, so I applied to FIU. I made the announcement, ‘I am now going to FIU,’ and I am completing my education,” said Frankel.
She also fulfilled another goal at 80, getting Bat Mitzvahed.
It was at that time Frankel learned something else about herself.
“I have a learning disability. All of these years, at 80 years of age I found out I had a learning– and no one, no one ever found out. No one ever discovered that before,” said Frankel.
She got help from different departments at FIU as she pursued her education.
“With the advice and help of people who knew more about that, I went to school and I was an A student,” she said.
Five years later, Frankel is done with her degree, and she said being in college again wasn’t hard, just different.
“When I went to college, I had a typewriter and some pens and pencils. That’s what I had, a typewriter, and now, my God, everything is technology,” said Frankel. “I see that being 80 is different from being 23 or 20. There’s a difference.”
Now, she’s sharing a message of encouragement.
“It’s never, ever, ever to late to do something that you want to do,” said Frankel. “It’s too late when you’re buried. Then you can’t do it.”
Fankel’s graduation is set for Tuesday at 3 p.m.
She said her kids and two of her grandchildren will be attending.
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