Lou Diekemper received her master's degree when she was in her 50s and her doctoral degree in her 60s. She has a very long list of lifetime accomplishments, most of them involving service to her community. Currently, she owns The Odyssey Bookstore in Lubbock, Texas, and gives workshops on a variety of topics such as: "Holistic Concepts of Stress Management," "The Possible Woman," and "Aging Gratefully and Gracefully." She is also very involved with mentoring programs in the public schools and is a founding member of the South Plains Food Bank.
Lou believes that learning is a lifetime process: "What is so interesting
about being an older person in today's world is that you not only have
the experience behind you of what you have done, but you have the time
to explore and attend adult education classes that are offered, and try
to find out where you interests lie now and where your talents are. It
can be a time of really discovering who you are, where you want to go,
and what you want to be."