The Diploma I Earned at 64

The Last Semester

The last semester was the hardest and the fastest. I had Cost Accounting, Payroll, and a capstone class where we did the full books for a real small business in town, a hardware store owned by a couple in their seventies who let the college students practice on them.

Kenzie and I were partners again. By then she had switched to days at the nursing home, so she was not falling asleep in class anymore.

She had also started dating a boy from the welding program, which she told me about in great detail every Thursday over lemon bars.

In April, two years almost to the day after that Easter, I got the letter saying I had completed the requirements for the Associate of Applied Science in Accounting.

Ray read it standing at the mailbox. Then he read it again. Then he folded it and put it in his shirt pocket and carried it around with him all day.

I sent invitations to the graduation. One to Eric and Amy. One to Jacob, who was finishing his first year of college classes there along with his last year of high school.

One to my sister in Brainerd. One to Kenzie’s mother, at Kenzie’s request.

Eric did not answer the invitation. Amy called and said they would be there. I asked her if Eric was coming.

She was quiet for a moment, and then she said, “He’s coming. He just doesn’t know how to say it.”