Never Too Late To Do What You Always Wanted to Do.

Mother Martina Roy died

I never knew her though friends of mine did.

There were a lot of things important in her life--like her marriage and her four children.

There were things that wentwrong in her life--the marriage didn't work out and one child pre-deceased her.

But here's the part I find the most interesting: her earliest dream-career was to be a nun. Her family was against that, and real life intervened. After her divorce, she was the sole support of all of her children.

Once her children were grown, she took positions as housemother at various fraternities. At age 72, when she decided to once again pursue that dream of becoming a nun, she not only knew how to handle rowdy college boys, but thanks to them, she was up on all the latest technology.

She was the United States' (and maybe the world's) oldest postulant both when she entered the convent at age 72 and when she took her final vows at age 84.

She was in her mid-ninties and had suffered from dementia for the past few years before she recently died. Her last years were spent among the nuns on Shaw Island, WA.

Those that knew her described her as funny, social, physically active, and a true delight.

There's definitely a lesson here--and not just for Catholics.