A 93-year-old grandmother has obtained her high school diploma decades after dropping out of school to pay her rent.
Eileen Delaney is an inspirational great-grandmother from Staten Island, New York, who received an honorary degree from the high school she was attending back in 1945.
As the mother-of-six explained, she dropped out of Port Richmond High School when she was 18 after her stepmother asked her to start working and help in paying for expenses.
“She insisted my senior year that I got to work, that if I was going to live in the house that I paid rent, and I had no choice,” Delaney told WABC.
According to the elderly lady, she was “very fortunate” to land a job at the New York Telephone Company despite not having a diploma yet.
Eventually, she also went on to marry Eugene A. Delaney with whom she raised six children. The couple now also shares 8 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren.
Following 75 years after she dropped out of high school, Delaney was surprised by Port Richmond High School with an honorary diploma after her niece reached out to the institution’s alumni association.
“I belonged to the alumni association all these years, I’ve always had letters from them, but I had no idea, I have to be honest, I had absolutely no idea this was going to happen,” Delaney admitted.
After the beloved grandma celebrated her graduation together with her family via Zoom video call, her daughter Maureen shared a series of photos of her mother posing with the diploma online.
“We were able to celebrate our beautiful Mother’s 93rd birthday last night. It was perfect. A family zoom event is always more than you ever thought it could be,” Maureen wrote.
“Our Cinderella was also blessed with the thoughtfulness of being granted an honorary diploma 75 years after the fact through the kindness of current Principal Greenfield of Port Richmond and John Woodman of The Official Port Richmond High School Alumni Association.”
Replaced!