Share your inspirational stories
Daryn wants to hear your stories of hope. Send your stories to Life@DaytonDaily News.com. Please include your name, hometown and a phone number where you can be reached. Also include “What’s Possible” in the subject line.
There’s a downside to my job running an inspirational news website.
It’s really hard to have a pity party day.
I was giving it my best effort earlier this week. See, I have big dreams to take this media company to another level. It seemed on this particular day that the world didn’t want to cooperate with my vision. “How long do I have to wait? How many unseen challenges do I need to overcome for these dreams to come true?” I wondered.
That’s when I came across a news story about Ellen Nizzi. Here’s a woman who knows all about dreams delayed. She’s dreamed about going to college since she was a little girl. Indeed, she graduated last week. Ho-hum, you say? How about this — Mrs. Nizzi is 90 years old.
I knew I had to meet this woman, so I tracked her down at her condo in Florida and had just about the most delightful, inspiring hour of my week.
It wasn’t supposed to be this hard, she explained to me. After all, she came from a good family with a father dedicated to the idea that both his children would go to college.
“I remember the day everything changed,” Mrs. Nizzi told me, clearer than I am on my best day. “Daddy came home on May 25, 1931, and told us he’d lost his job at the factory.” The Great Depression had arrived at this family’s footsteps. The extras, like young Ellen’s piano lessons, were the first to go. But soon it all went: their home, food and certainly any big dreams like a college education.
As hard times went on, the family moved to Texas, and Ellen married and started a family. She and her husband ran a music store for years in Amarillo. She focused on seeing dreams come true through her children. Both her daughters have successful careers and the letters Ph.D. after their names.
By 1991, Ellen’s husband had passed, and she’d closed the music store. She tried the senior citizen center scene but it wasn’t for her. That’s when her daughters told her it was time for her to go back to college.
“Are you crazy?” she replied. “I’m 77 years old!” Yet, she promised them she would go, so off she went. First to Amarillo Community College for her associate’s degree. When she moved to Florida in 2005, she decided to keep going and aim for her bachelor’s degree at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg.
There were all sorts of obstacles along the way, including a year of remedial classes just to get into community college, learning how to use a computer, an hour-long drive and recovering from a broken hip. Yet, she still kept going. It took Mrs. Nizzi 12 years to complete college, but she did it.
“I don’t know what all the fuss is about,” she confided to me on the phone. “I’m just an old lady who went to college.”
“You’re so much more than that,” I insisted. “You’re someone who didn’t let your or your dad’s dream die, no matter how long it took for it to come true.”
That’s when I asked this freshly minted college grad to help me do some math. “Any significance to May 22, 2011?” I asked.
“Why look at that,” she smiled.
“Yes,” I said. “You picked up your college diploma almost 80 years to the day after your dad saw all his dreams for his family appear to vanish.”
“I’m looking at his photo right now,” she shared. “He would’ve been so proud, there’d be no buttons left on his shirt!”
He’s not the only one. There were four generations of Nizzi women there to cheer on Ellen at graduation. Their gift to her? A keyboard. Yes, she finally gets to take the piano lessons she had to give up when she was 10 years old.
And don’t count out more school. “Who knows?” Mrs. Nizzi pondered. If I live to 100, we just might have another Ph.D. in the family!”
With that, Mrs. Nizzi had effectively rained on my pity parade. Did she have one piece of advice for those of us with big dreams and big obstacles?
“You better try it,” she said. “You’ll live a lot longer and be a lot happier.”
Enough said. If hanging in there means feeling even an ounce of Mrs. Nizzi’s spirit and joy, I say, “Count me in.”
Daryn Kagan is the creator and host of DarynKagan.com, an online community that features a daily webcast of inspirational stories. She is the author of “What’s Possible! 50 True Stories of People Who Dared To Dream They Could Make a Difference.”
About the Author