Rewind to 1960, and John F. Kennedy had just been inaugurated as president of the United States. Nobody had heard of The Beatles — they were still learning how to play guitar, as a Liverpudlian skiffle band called The Quarrymen. Donald Trump was still an unknown schoolboy, and the English football team were yet to win a World Cup.
Horace Sheffield, 88, remembers 1960 better than most — it was the year he first began university. Now, more than half a century later, he has finally achieved a lifelong dream and donned his graduation cap.
Congrats to our 88-year-old graduate, Reverend Horace Sheffield! He will receive his degree during graduation Friday! @shorterunivpic.twitter.com/XPw9fzmw7O
— SU International (@ShorterU_intl) May 3, 2017
Sheffield, from Barnesville, Georgia, studied at Shorter University for five years as a young man, but according to this heartwarming report from ABC News, quit education in order to teach his daughters. Now, his daughters have daughters. Indeed, most of his family attended the ceremony: his two children, five grandchildren, and 14 of his 15 great-grandchildren. '
“He’s smart as a whip,” said a proud Jill Brazier about her grandfather, “I’m not even lying!”
Sheffield heard that Shorter University were offering the elderly free classes, and gave credit to his tutor, Amanda Brannock, for pushing him to complete his Christian Studies work. She even lent him her computer and printer to take the online courses. Brannock, who first knew Sheffield from church, went on to help him walk across the stage to collect his certificate.
“She wrote out my assignments and told me what to do and she expected me to do it,” Sheffield said of Brannock. “She expected me to make straight As and I did it. I wrote two papers a week and then had the test. I wrote it in longhand and she typed it all up and put it into the computer. Without her I would not have this diploma today.”
Brannock feels just as warmly about Sheffield, who she described as a “sweetheart”. Despite not having a degree herself, she’s been reassured by her friend that as soon as she does, he will walk across the stage with her too.
“I lived with Horace more than I lived with my own family the last two years,” Brannock said. “We’ve kept each other going. He’s inspired me to keep going and I hope I inspired him to keep going. Graduation was one of the happiest days of my life. I cried like a baby. It was one of the most precious moments and I couldn’t have been more proud even if it was my own degree.”
As Sheffield took the stage with Brannock to collect his diploma, the “crowd erupted with whistles and yells, and didn't stop,” according to the Rome News Tribune. He even got a free photoshoot from a local photographer who felt compelled to offer her services after stumbling upon the story on Facebook. It was an emotional day, none more so than for the triumphant student, who finally succeeded in accomplishing the “only thing in life he had never finished."
“If I can do it, anybody else can do it. You can do it,” Sheffield said, cap on head. It’s never too late to get yourself an education. Even if it takes you the rest of your life, you’ll get there — and probably before England’s next World Cup win, too.