Woman, 102, gets honorary high school diploma

Woman, 102, gets honorary high school diploma

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A western Pennsylvania woman who dropped out of school to work during the Great Depression finally has her high school diploma in time for her 103rd birthday on Saturday.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says Hazel Marie Attenborough Cichowski was presented with the honorary diploma at Wednesday night’s meeting of the Pittsburgh Public Schools board.

Cichowski, a resident of Pittsburgh’s South Side neighborhood, dropped out of South High School in the 11th grade because she needed to go to work during the Depression.

She told the board “I really loved school. It was never a chore for me.” But she said she also loved her job and “always made the best of the situation.”

Cichowski worked for 45 years at West Penn Hospital.