最近有幸結識一對老夫婦。九十二歲的老先生，精神樣貌看起來仿佛七十多歲，絲毫沒有老態龍鍾。老太太八十九歲，行動稍有不便，但每次見到她都是手不釋卷。後來知道，老太太的母親98歲去世。當時想這一家人太有長壽基因了，誰知卻讓我知曉了一個超勵誌的故事。

 

他們家進門處，牆上掛了不少的木質和銅質的獎牌。那塊最厚重的獎牌上麵刻的字最多，湊過去，一行行細細讀完後，感覺太激勵人心了！獎牌是Illinois州政府授給Lucille的一個紀錄獎牌，她是老太太的母親。Lucille身高隻有一米五，在自己88歲時才開始學習跆拳道，90歲竟然就拿到了黑帶級別，是第一位破九十歲紀錄的超級老太太。

 

這樣給人鼓舞令人振奮的故事不應該埋在故紙堆裏，應該拿出來時常翻一翻，給後來人以鼓勵。我在網上搜到有關她的幾則消息，真的太感恩了。願意和各位姐妹分享我的所得。

 

以下鏈接是1986年 Chicago Tribune和People 對Lucille的介紹。

1. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1986-05-14/news/8602030762_1_james-thompson-tae-kwon-do-older-americans-month

2. http://people.com/archive/black-belt-granny-lucille-thompson-is-alive-and-kicking-at-90-vol-25-no-23/

 

為了方便，我把People雜誌的原文複製在這裏，大家可以直接讀。

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Black Belt Granny Lucille Thompson Is Alive and Kicking at 90

Posted on June 9, 1986

 

Two years ago Lucille Thompson was just another 88-year-old great-grandmother with time on her hands and arthritis in her fingers. The twice-widowed former speech writer was looking for a way to get more physical exercise when a couple of things happened that changed her life dramatically: Two elderly women were murdered in her Danville, Ill. neighborhood, and on a visit to the local senior center she saw her first demonstration of tae kwon do the Korean version of karate The next day Thompson presented herself at a nearby tae kwon do academy.

 

Her family’s reaction was mixed. While her eldest daughter and all seven of her grandchildren were "tickled,”her youngest daughter, 55, with whom she was living at the time, "tightened her jaws,”Thompson remembers. People thought I was nuts,”she says. ”You're the ones who are nuts, " I told  them. "You're gonna get older while I get younger.’ ”

 

Born in Iowa, the daughter of a Methodist minister, Thompson had a proper Victorian upbringing and “was never encouraged to do anything athletic.” At 4’11” and 109 pounds when she signed on for martial arts she was hardly an imposing specimen. “At first when she kicked,” says her teacher, Master Min Kyo Han, 49, “I had to support her.” In a remarkable 20 months, the gray-haired granny earned a black belt—making her the oldest person ever to achieve one in tae kwon do—and a nickname: “Killer.”