Gold star mom finishes law degree at age 60, fulfilling a goal three decades in the making

[ad_1]

Dee House has imagined her graduation from law school since she was first admitted 30 years ago.”Today I’m looking back, thinking, ‘Oh my God. I can’t believe it,'” House said, because Saturday, that day finally arrived.After her first semester at the University of Maine School of Law back in 1992, with three young kids and a home in Lee, Maine, she made one of the toughest decisions of her life.”I decided to go back to Lee and raise my family and it wasn’t an easy decision at all, and I was very sad for many years,” House said.And for many years, that dream lingered.”So it’s 2017. I had pretty much thought that law school was not gonna happen for me in my lifetime, but I still couldn’t get it out of my head,” House said.That year, just before Christmas, she got her second acceptance letter, welcoming her back at 57 years old.”I jokingly call myself an old lady, although the girl that lives inside me doesn’t feel like an old lady, but I look at my pictures and I’m like that’s an old lady looking back at me,” House said.House is a Gold Star mom. In 2007, her son, Joel, was killed in Iraq.”That basically took a 10-year slice out of my life to come back to being able to dream and hope again,” she said.Joel’s bravery and courage are a reminder to House that she can do hard things, like get her law degree at the age of 60.She and her husband run a retreat in Lee that helps veterans heal by connecting them with the outdoors. They want to nationalize their model and think House’s degree will help them do that.In that way, her Juris Doctorate is fulfilling two dreams.”I imagined over the years that I could do it, but I didn’t know what I was getting into at 57 years old,” House said.Three years later, diploma in hand, she’s unstoppable.