111-Year-Old Gets Diploma: Lela Babb Burden Receives High School Diploma

This week, a woman, 111, got her diploma at Norfolk public schools in Virginia. According to ABC 13, Lela Babb Burden was presented with an honorary diploma decades after she left high school. According to the report, Burden’s high school was shut down in 1918 due to a flu pandemic. After that, Burden never went back to school. At 15-years-old, Burden had been working two jobs and was committed to her work — so she decided to keep working rather than complete her education; something that wasn’t too uncommon in those days.

According to the report:

“Burden raised a family and remains involved in her community, where she’s lived for the past 107 years.”

The 111-year-old woman got her diploma during a special ceremony at Booker T. Washington High School. She sat on stage in her wheelchair and “clapped lightly” when her name was called according to The New York Daily News. In an interview, it was revealed that Burden doesn’t feel like she’s 111-years-old at all. She still reads the newspaper everyday, something that she has done for most of her adult life. At her last birthday party back in May she said:

“I’m not old yet. I’m still a young lady.”

Although Burden did not get to finish high school, she is very smart. She worked her whole life, and doesn’t seem like the type to complain. It is unclear how many children Burden has, but you can imagine how proud they must have been to see their mom receive her degree after all these years!

According to WTKR, Burden said the following when asked how she felt about being one of the oldest women in the world:

“Not any different. Still have your aches and pains but thank God I’m still alive.”

Believe it or not, more and more people are living to be 100 nowadays. As previously reported by The Inquisitr, centenarians aren’t as rare as they once were — and the amount of people that make it to 100 is expected to grow. According to a study, most people who live to be 100 (or older) usually don’t have any serious health issues. These people just die of “old age” when their time is through. The hard thing about living to 100 is that not everyone at that age is 100 percent and things start going little by little. For people like Lela Babb Burden, however, having a beautiful mind at that age is all one can really hope for.

[Photos courtesy of WTKR via The New York Daily News]