The Grandma Moses of NYC

At age 60, Adele Lerner's husband gave her a paint-by-the numbers set. At age 83, she earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts from Lehman College. At 101, she had her first art show!

As Ms. Lerner tells NY Times reporter Corey Kilgannon:

What can I tell you? I'm a late bloomer. . . I learn at my own pace. I feel that it's never too late. If you don't know something, go and try to learn it every day until it comes to you.

To read the full article, click here

Note: the above photograph was taken by Suzanne DeChillo for the NYT.

America's Oldest Working Women

According to Pink magazine, 95-year old Blanche Mahaney, an assistant manager of the Cottages Senior Living Apartments in Kingman, Arizona, is America's oldest working woman.

Finding Hope in Tragedy

Today is the 40th anniversary of the My Lai Massacre. As with most gravity defiers, the survivors have not allowed themselves to become embittered by their experiences, at least according to Associated Press Writer Ben Stocking, who reports the following:

"We are not harboring hatred," said Nguyen Hoang Son, vice governor of Quang Ngai, the central Vietnamese province where the incident occurred. "We are calling for solidarity to defend peace, to defend life and to remind the world that it must never forget the massacre at My Lai."

Although the occasion was somber, many visitors said they drew hope from it.

"So much positive energy has come from such a negative event," said Richard Chamberlin, 63, a returning veteran from Madison, Wisconsin. "The people here have amazing resilience. I'm grateful that they've treated us as friends, not enemies."

To read the full text of Stocking's article, click here.

Note: The above AP photo was taken by Chitose Suzuki.

WowOWow

A cool new site for women over 40 is launching this Saturday: WowOWow: The Women on the Web. Check it out at wowowow.com.

Note: The photo above was taken by Joe Fornabaio for The New York Times. Pictured are WowOWow.com founders Liz Smith, Lesley Stahl, Mary Wells, and Joni Evans. Click here to read more about the site in today's Times.

Study to Explore Career Changes

Baby boomer Elva Fong is seeking participants for a doctoral study to determine why women make voluntary career changes in midlife. Among other things, she is hoping to understand the role of emotional intelligence in the decision-making process.

Fong is targeting career women ages 35 to 55 who have been in a middle or upper-level management position for more than five years and have made or are in a position to make a midlife career change. If you fit this profile, consider completing Elva’s 10-question Voluntary Midlife Career Change Survey. Click here to access it. Feel free to pass the survey along to other women. Contact Elva directly at efong1@cox.net if you have questions.

Note: I borrowed some of the above description of Fong’s study from WomenEntrepreneurs.com. More information about the study is available on their site as well.