98-year-old Evelyn — well, she was 97 when the video was made but proudly said she was turning 98 soon — immediately won me over with her vibrant smile and laughter.
Evelyn shared a wonderful story about perseverance in an uplifting, touching video by I Like Giving. It starts out a little sad sad, but trust me — the ending is the best.
Like many senior citizens, she lives in a retirement community, which is a housing complex for older folks who can live independently.
They usually provide social events, community facilities, and often transportation to local businesses.
Unfortunately, Evelyn's retirement community discontinued its twice weekly bus service.
That's a big deal for residents who are completely reliant on it to go anywhere, and Evelyn's friend Joyce was especially disappointed. Joyce told Evelyn that without transportation to the grocery store, she was going to have to move to a different retirement home. But she didn't want to move simply because she couldn't get to the store.
Evelyn wasn't about to see her friend move away.
But there was just one problem...
Yep, that's right. Evelyn's license had been taken away, despite her not having any driving infractions.
Maybe even worse than actually losing the license was the way it made her feel.
Evelyn didn't let it get her down, though. Nope. She went to get her license back.
And that's exactly what she did.
Even better than Evelyn getting her license back was the reason she did it: her desire to help people, like her friend Joyce.
"I don't have money to give," she said, "but I can give myself and my time."
And that's exactly what she did. Evelyn took Joyce to the grocery store once she had that license.
Her daughter has told her she shouldn't do certain things, and to that, Evelyn had this to say:
Evelyn's got the right attitude! And so do lots of senior citizens, who are very capable of all sorts of things despite their age.
If you watch the video, stick around until the very end when she offers the filmmakers a cup of tea and a muffin. <3