腊梅lamei
云在青天水在瓶
正文
最近有幸结识一对老夫妇。九十二岁的老先生，
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，
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.”
Thompson walks the streets without fear now. Her fingers are nimble and her back, which was beginning to hunch over, is as straight as a flagpole. A few months ago Thompson moved into a senior citizens’ apartment complex located two blocks from the academy. Now a media darling who has broken up objects and audiences on programs like The Tonight Show, Thompson has even added name-dropping to her impressive Oriental arsenal. “Johnny Carson’s very gentle,” she reveals, “but when I yelled he really jumped.”
我最喜欢这句“You're gonna get older while I get younger”， 哈哈哈！
积极进取的心态，也是长寿的一个原因吧？
问好腊梅！
身材挺拔，精悍，口齿还有些伶俐。估计年轻时当过兵。
能不断突破自己，持续保持旺盛生命力，我想是每个人内心里都极其渴望的。