--- title: Great-Grandma Graduates College After Going Back to Heal Broken Heart description: She went back to school after her longtime husband died canonical: https://time.com/3996926/grandmother-graduates-college-87/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-13T20:24:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:23:25.488Z og:title: Great-Grandmother Finally Graduates College at 87 og:description: She went back to school to heal her broken heart after her husband died og:url: https://time.com/3996926/grandmother-graduates-college-87/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Great-Grandmother Finally Graduates College at 87 twitter:description: She went back to school to heal her broken heart after her husband died twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Great-Grandmother Graduates College After Going Back to Heal Her Broken Heart  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Aug 13, 2015 8:24 PM UTC  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Aug 13, 2015 8:24 PM UTC Jean Kops, 87, went back to college to heal her broken heart after her husband of more than 50 years died. And this Saturday, she’s going to graduate. Kops first began classes at the University of Nebraska 70 years ago, [the Omaha _World Herald_ reports](http://www.omaha.com/columnists/grace-great-grandmother-finishes-what-she-started-she-ll-be/article%5F60e4b366-2a56-5404-8752-dd50e5f976af.html), but in 1948 she got married to Lyle Kops and quit school to live on his ranch. Jean and her husband had five daughters and were happily married until he died in 2011. Kops didn’t know what to do without her husband, so her daughters urged her to go back to school, and she decided to go back to the University of Nebraska. After two years of taking classes with students younger than her grandchildren (including Human Sexuality, where she told the class what it was like to be a virgin when she got married), Kops is finally going to get her college degree. What’s next? “I’ll find something!” Kops said. > [](https://twitter.com/unlcas/status/630813615637987328) \[[_Omaha World Herald_](http://www.omaha.com/columnists/grace-great-grandmother-finishes-what-she-started-she-ll-be/article%5F60e4b366-2a56-5404-8752-dd50e5f976af.html)\] Great-Grandma Graduates College After Going Back to Heal Broken Heart ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3996926/grandmother-graduates-college-87/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3996926/grandmother-graduates-college-87/"},"headline":"Great-Grandmother Graduates College After Going Back to Heal Her Broken Heart","datePublished":"2015-08-13T20:24:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:23:25.488Z","description":"School took her mind off her husband's death","url":"https://time.com/3996926/grandmother-graduates-college-87/","keywords":["Newsfeed","society"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3996926/grandmother-graduates-college-87/","name":"Great-Grandmother Graduates College After Going Back to Heal Her Broken Heart"}}]}] ```