It's never too late to turnyour life around

It's never too late to turn your life around

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing a 77-year-old man who proves that it's never too late to turn your life around.

I want to share his story with you because I think others might benefit from his experience.

Leroy admits he was always shy, too shy to talk around strangers and too fearful of trying anything new.

But that was OK, he says, because he was married to the world's greatest woman. "We were married 46 years, and I can honestly say she grew more loving with every passing year," he said.

When his wife died, Leroy couldn't pull himself together.

"When she died I had no reason to go on living. I admit it, I was in bad shape," he says. "I prayed to God that I could die, too."

Leroy is a man of great faith. But God didn't answer that prayer at least not in the way he expected.

When Leroy gets overcome with emotion, he says he writes poems to express his feelings. Then he puts the poems in a drawer and forgets about them.

Sometimes, life changes when we take the smallest of steps. That was the case for Leroy when he saw an announcement in the paper and decided to attend a meeting of the local writers' guild.

He slipped into a back row "just to listen," he says. Everyone was taking turns reading something they wrote. "I didn't have anything I wrote, but I recited a poem I wrote when my wife died," he says.

Although he didn't know it at the time, finding the courage to recite that poem helped him find a new life.

"People were really welcoming, and they seemed to like my poem. They kept coming up to me after the meeting encouraging me to join the writers' group." With that warm welcome, he became a member of the writers' guild.

When a woman in the group announced she was starting a folk band, Leroy thought it was something he would like. At 70 years of age, he started taking guitar lessons.

"It was something I always thought about doing but I never did. I even had an old guitar I bought a long time ago," he says.

Now, armed with the ability to play his guitar, (just a few chords, he says) Leroy joined the writer's band.

Knowing how well he wrote poems, two accomplished songwriters in the band encouraged Leroy to start writing songs, too. He got so good at it that he will be spotlighted in a community concert next week. He'll be singing his original song, "It's Never Too Late to Start."

"I write about what I know," he says. "I know about picking tomatoes in Indiana and picking cotton in Arkansas. Now I'm just pickin' this old guitar."

What he also knows firsthand is that "even old lives can change." That's the message in his song.

It could also be the motto for his life. According to Leroy, it's a lesson he learned when he needed it most.

He learned he could sit home and cry. Or, he could embrace life.

"I'm not saying it came easy," he says. "I've lived in my housing development for many years but I never socialized much … not at all after my wife died."

When he saw that his clubhouse was hosting a karaoke night, he worked up the nerve to go and participate.

"When I stood up to sing, my knees were shaking so bad I didn't think my legs would hold me," he recalls.

Now, he sings in church, playing his guitar and singing his original songs. "Music has added so much joy to life," he says. "You're never too old to discover the joy of music."

But that's not the only new thing he tried. For years, he watched people kayaking, thinking he might like to do it.

It wasn't until he was 70 that he worked up his nerve to try it. He discovered the fun of being on the water in a kayak and found another way to savor life.

Do you see a theme here? Leroy could be the poster boy for a Life Begins at 70 movie. Where he once thought he was at the end of his life, he's discovering 70 is only the beginning the beginning of a new life.

I love his "never too late" story. What makes it all that remarkable is that he was able to overcome his extreme shyness … and he had to do it when he was at the lowest time of his life.

One of my good friends has a sister who lost her husband years ago. She, too, is depressed and has given up on life.

My friend asked me if I would take her to lunch and encourage her to get involved in doing things on her own.

Man, I tried.

All she could say was, "I can't."

I told Leroy about her, and he was quick to offer to talk to her.

"If someone as shy as I am can start over, anyone can," he says.

I don't know why some people can work up the gumption to build a new life while others stay depressed and fret away the life they have.

But I do know anyone who finds the courage to take that first step might find a new and rewarding life.

Just ask Leroy.