Nursing home resident erasing a lifelong regret

In the spring of 2009, the Adult High School of the Perth Amboy Adult Education Center was contacted by the Alameda Nursing facility in Perth Amboy regarding a patient named Ida Ruth Hayes Greene. Mrs. Greene is a 98-year-old patient at their facility. She had told everyone involved in caring for her that the only regret she had in her otherwise amazing lifetime was that she had not graduated from high school.

Well, on March 22, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. Ida Ruth Hayes Greene will fulfill her goal and receive her high school diploma at the Alameda facility.

Ida Ruth Hayes Greene was the eldest of 11 children who was given considerable responsibilities early on at her family home and farm in Colquitt, Ga. Her family owned a farm. Her mother passed away when she was young and she was required to basically become a surrogate mother to her 10 siblings. She was required to get up at 4:30 every morning and make breakfast for her father and siblings, and that was followed by tackling chores, making lunch for everyone ... including those working in the fields.