Barbara E. Joe was 23 when she learned that President Kennedy signed the executive order that started the Peace Corps. In her heart, she was an idealist. Her parents had taken her all over the world. She had seen poverty and need. It was her dream to do something about it. But, well, life happened to her. She got married and had four kids. She didn’t have time to think about jetting off to some developing nation. She had mouths to feed! Then, when she was 56, she got unthinkable news. Her son Andrew died in a freak accident at the age of 27. Over the next couple of years, she had more losses – a foster son, an ex-husband, her father. She was inconsolable in her grief.1 Who could even remember childhood dreams at that point?
… Barbara Joe, gave up a lot in her life; she lost a lot. But when she turned sixty-two, the clouds started to clear. She wasn’t willing to let her dream die. With strength from God knows where – she joined the Peace Corps and went to Honduras. She worked on AIDS prevention, she got people their medicine, she helped deliver babies. Her idealism shone through. Not only did she complete the 27 months she signed up for, but she stayed for almost 3.5 years. Once she came home, she made a trip back to Honduras every year into her mid-seventies. So far as I can tell, she’s still doing it to this day!2
[1] https://www.womansday.com/life/real-women/a2383/achieving-your-dreams-over-40-116382/
[2] https://www.womansday.com/life/real-women/a2383/achieving-your-dreams-over-40-116382/ & http://metamorphosisyourstories.blogspot.com/2018/02/finding-my-path-back-to-peace-corps-by.html