(Photo: WZZM-TV, Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo-Battle Creek, Mich.) 
 
 WALKER Mich. — A 97-year-old woman received her high school diploma, 79 years after she was supposed to graduate. Catholic Central High School Principal Greg Deja, left, presents 97-year-old Margaret Thome Bekema with her honorary diploma at Stonebridge Manor on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015 in Grand Rapids, Mich.. Bekema... (Associated Press) 
 
 97-year-old Margaret Thome Bekema, left, cries as she is presented with her honorary diploma from Catholic Central High School at Stonebridge Manor on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015 in Grand Rapids, Mich.. Bekema... (Associated Press) 
 
 97-year-old Margaret Thome Bekema looks at her high school letter as Catholic Central High School principal Greg Deja, left, and Director of Advancement Beth Banta fix her cap shortly after her honorary... (Associated Press) 
 
 This photo shows the honorary diploma awarded to 97-year-old Margaret Thome Bekema at Stonebridge Manor on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015 in Grand Rapids, Mich.. Bekema began her education at Catholic Central... (Associated Press) 
 
 Margaret Thome Bekema finally was able to don a mortarboard and fulfill her lifelong goal in front of her friends and family on Thursday. "I thank you from the bottom of my heart,'' said a tearful Bekema, after receiving the diploma from Catholic Central Principal Greg Deja at a ceremony attended by the woman's family and friends at the Yorkshire and Stoneridge Manor senior community. She left her junior year because her mother, Katherine, was ill with cancer and she was called on by her father, Leo Thome, to care for her and her siblings while he worked. Leaving school at age 17 broke her heart, she said, and she’s thankful for the recognition. Monica Scott is the Grand Rapids K-12 education writer.
– Margaret Bekema would have loved to graduate with the rest of the Class of 1936 but life got in the way—almost eight decades of it. The Michigan woman, who had to drop out of high school when she was 17 to look after her mother, who had cancer, and three younger siblings, finally received her diploma from Catholic Central High School on Thursday at the age of 97, reports USA Today. Bekema, who was presented with the diploma in a ceremony senior community, said graduating had been a lifelong dream, the AP reports. "I had to quit school to take over the family," said Bekema, who did clerical work for the Army during World War II and late worked as a preschool teacher. "It was hard, you have no idea how hard that was. I loved high school and I had lots of friends." One of her two children tells MLive.com that her mother isn't one for complaining, but not graduating from high school was something she always regretted. "She is the type of person that whatever life hands her, she just deals with it very graciously," she says.