At 90, Maryette McFarland Earned the Degree She Started 70 Years Ago

In 1954, a young woman named Maryette McFarland enrolled at Queen's University Belfast to study English Literature. She was bright, passionate, and full of dreams. Then life intervened.

Marriage. Children. Immigration to Canada. A career. Grandchildren. Seventy years of living fully. But the unfinished degree never left her mind.

"It was like a book with the last chapter torn out. I needed to know how my story ended."

A Second Beginning

At 87, Maryette enrolled in the Open University. Her family thought she was joking. She wasn't.

For three years, she studied Shakespeare and Wordsworth, attended online lectures, wrote essays by hand, and passed exam after exam. Technology was a challenge — her granddaughter taught her to use Zoom. But the material itself? That came naturally.

"My brain may be 90," she laughed, "but my curiosity is still 20."

The Final Chapter

In 2024, Maryette McFarland graduated with a degree in English Literature from the Open University. The ceremony was attended by four generations of her family — including the great-grandchildren she hopes to inspire.

"I want them to know that it's never too late," she said in her graduation speech. "Not too late to learn. Not too late to dream. Not too late to become who you were meant to be."

Wisdom for All Ages

Maryette's message has resonated far beyond her family. Her story has been shared millions of times, inspiring older adults to pursue education and younger people to stop making excuses.

"If a 90-year-old woman can graduate university," one commenter wrote, "I can finish that project I've been putting off for months."

Maryette's next goal? To finally read all of Proust. After all, she has time.

This is lifelong momentum.