Over the course of the school year， Rose became a campus icon and easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she reveled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up.
At the end of the term we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet and I’ll never forget what she taught us. She was introduced and stepped up to the podium. As she began to deliver her prepared speech， she dropped her three-by-five cards on the floor. Frustrated and a bit embarrassed， she leaned into the microphone and simply said， “I’m sorry I’m so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent and this whiskey is killing me！ I’ll never get my speech back in order so let me just tell you what I know.” As we laughed， she cleared her throat and began：
“We do not stop playing because we are old； we grow old because we stop playing. There are only four secrets to staying young， being happy and achieving success.
“You have to laugh and find humor each and every day.
“You’ ve got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams， you die.
“There is a giant difference between growing older and growing up. If you are 19 years old and lie in bed for one full year and don’t do one productive thing， you will turn 20 years old. If I am 87 years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything I will turn 88. Anybody can grow older. That doesn’t take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding the opportunity in change.
“Have no regrets. The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what we did， but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets.”
She concluded her speech by courageously singing “The Rose”. She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them out in our daily lives.
At year’s end， Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago. One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep. Over 2000 college students attended her funeral in tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that it’s never too late to be all you can possibly be.