--- title: 97-Year-Old Woman Finally Gets Her High School Diploma description: Margaret Thome Bekema had to drop out of high school to care for her sick mother canonical: https://time.com/4095436/michigan-woman-high-school-diploma/ author: Jack Dickey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-31T14:23:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:26:29.882Z og:title: 97-Year-Old Michigan Woman Finally Gets Her High School Diploma og:description: Margaret Thome Bekema had to drop out of high school to care for her sick mother og:url: https://time.com/4095436/michigan-woman-high-school-diploma/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfda9342954548a56/69886f07e20a87cd4ba8dfb6/graduation-day_grandma.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 97-year-old Margaret Thome Bekema looks at her high school letter as Catholic Central High School principal Greg Deja, left, and Director of Advancement Beth Banta fix her cap shortly after her honorary graduation at Stonebridge Manor on Thursday, Oct. 2 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 97-Year-Old Michigan Woman Finally Gets Her High School Diploma twitter:description: Margaret Thome Bekema had to drop out of high school to care for her sick mother twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfda9342954548a56/69886f07e20a87cd4ba8dfb6/graduation-day_grandma.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 97-Year-Old Michigan Woman Finally Gets Her High School Diploma  by [Jack Dickey](https://time.com/author/jack-dickey/)  ## Jack Dickey Oct 31, 2015 2:23 PM UTC  97-year-old Margaret Thome Bekema looks at her high school letter as Catholic Central High School principal Greg Deja, left, and Director of Advancement Beth Banta fix her cap after her honorary graduation at Stonebridge Manor in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Oct. 29, 2015. 97-year-old Margaret Thome Bekema looks at her high school letter as Catholic Central High School principal Greg Deja, left, and Director of Advancement Beth Banta fix her cap after her honorary graduation at Stonebridge Manor in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Oct. 29, 2015.Emily Rose Bennett—The Grand Rapids Press/AP  by [Jack Dickey](https://time.com/author/jack-dickey/)  ## Jack Dickey Oct 31, 2015 2:23 PM UTC A 97-year-old woman on Thursday finally received her high school diploma, 79 years after she was supposed to graduate. Margaret Thome Bekema, who would have walked with the Catholic Central High School class of 1936 in Grand Rapids, Mich., had to drop out in her junior year to care for her cancer-afflicted mother. She later did clerical work for the armed forces and served as a preschool teacher. Over the summer, her family contacted the school and shared her story. Upon receiving the honorary diploma at Yorkshire and Stonebridge Manor senior community, [she said](http://fox17online.com/2015/10/30/97-year-old-woman-get-diploma-from-gr-catholic-central/), tearing up, “I don’t know how to express my thanks… I’m sorry. I’m just plain chicken.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4095436/michigan-woman-high-school-diploma/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4095436/michigan-woman-high-school-diploma/"},"headline":"97-Year-Old Michigan Woman Finally Gets Her High School Diploma","datePublished":"2015-10-31T14:23:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:26:29.882Z","description":"Margaret Thome Bekema had to drop out of high school to care for her sick mother","url":"https://time.com/4095436/michigan-woman-high-school-diploma/","keywords":["Newsfeed","U.S."],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfda9342954548a56/69886f07e20a87cd4ba8dfb6/graduation-day_grandma.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jack Dickey","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jack-dickey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfda9342954548a56/69886f07e20a87cd4ba8dfb6/graduation-day_grandma.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"97-year-old Margaret Thome Bekema looks at her high school letter as Catholic Central High School principal Greg Deja, left, and Director of Advancement Beth Banta fix her cap shortly after her honorary graduation at Stonebridge Manor on Thursday, Oct. 2","caption":"97-year-old Margaret Thome Bekema looks at her high school letter as Catholic Central High School principal Greg Deja, left, and Director of Advancement Beth Banta fix her cap shortly after her honorary graduation at Stonebridge Manor on Thursday, Oct. 2","creditText":"Emily Rose Bennett—The Grand Rapids Press/AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"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/4095436/michigan-woman-high-school-diploma/","name":"97-Year-Old Michigan Woman Finally Gets Her High School Diploma"}}]}] ```