最近有幸结识一对老夫妇。九十二岁的老先生，精神样貌看起来仿佛七十多岁，丝毫没有老态龙钟。老太太八十九岁，行动稍有不便，但每次见到她都是手不释卷。后来知道，老太太的母亲98岁去世。当时想这一家人太有长寿基因了，谁知却让我知晓了一个超励志的故事。

 

他们家进门处，墙上挂了不少的木质和铜质的奖牌。那块最厚重的奖牌上面刻的字最多，凑过去，一行行细细读完后，感觉太激励人心了！奖牌是Illinois州政府授给Lucille的一个纪录奖牌，她是老太太的母亲。Lucille身高只有一米五，在自己88岁时才开始学习跆拳道，90岁竟然就拿到了黑带级别，是第一位破九十岁纪录的超级老太太。

 

这样给人鼓舞令人振奋的故事不应该埋在故纸堆里，应该拿出来时常翻一翻，给后来人以鼓励。我在网上搜到有关她的几则消息，真的太感恩了。愿意和各位姐妹分享我的所得。

 

以下链接是1986年 Chicago Tribune和People 对Lucille的介绍。

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/

 

为了方便，我把People杂志的原文复制在这里，大家可以直接读。

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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.”