Guinness Book Of Records Just Awarded A 103-Year-Old Woman A Title That Might Inspire You To Change Your Life
She's setting the bar and metaphorically running circles around the rest of us.
Ground Picture | Shutterstock A lot of people look forward to life after retirement. It’s like a reward for all of that time and effort they put into the workforce. One woman wasn’t happy just sitting at home, though. Instead, she chose to go out in the world and make a difference.
Now, at 103 years old, she’s the oldest person in the world doing so. She was recently recognized by the Guinness Book of Records for her feat, and she’s inspiring as many people as possible to follow in her footsteps.
A 103-year-old woman was just awarded the title of world’s oldest female volunteer by the Guinness Book of Records.
Beryl Carr, a woman from the U.K., was the one given the heartwarming award. Isobel Williams reported on the achievement for Talker News. According to Williams, Beryl got the title after volunteering at the Friends Cafe in west London’s Ealing Hospital for more than two decades. That’s right. She started volunteering there when she was 80.
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Carr has been bringing smiles to hospital patrons’ faces for over 20 years while doing one of the most ordinary things in the world. She said, “I’ve made a fair few sandwiches in my time, but I really enjoy the social side of it.”
Carr spent most of her life in Cambridgeshire, which is about an hour and a half’s drive from her now beloved hospital. She moved to London to be closer to her daughter, Val. Carr was married to her husband, Bill, for 60 years. They met at a dance in 1942. Williams reported that she was born in 1922 when George V was still the reigning monarch of England, and she lived through World War II, even surviving the bombing of her own home.
All of her life experiences have made her want to give back and have given her a unique outlook on life.
A lot of people see their older years as a time to take a break. It’s stereotyped as that time when you play golf and visit your grandkids. That’s not what Carr thought, though. “I can’t think of anything worse than being stuck in front of the TV all day,” she said.
She also shared her touching thoughts on the act of volunteering. “The great thing about volunteering is that you are helping other people, but in [a] funny way you are helping yourself as well,” she stated. “Volunteering gave me a new lease on life, and it is something I would recommend to anyone regardless of their age.”
Carr also understands the value of lending a helping hand during such dark times. She said that watching the news and seeing all of the different world conflicts reminds her of living through World War II. “It’s terrible to see all the news of war on the TV nowadays,” she said. “When I see those pictures, it reminds me of what I lived through in London during the Blitz.”
Volunteering is often an easy thing to do, but it has a great impact on those affected by it.
Research from the Census Bureau and AmeriCorps found that 75.7 million people over the age of 16 formally volunteered for different organizations from September 2022 to September 2023. That represents 28.3% of that segment of the population. That’s great news, but there are still so many more people who need to be helped and so many people who could be helpers.
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Organizations are struggling to get volunteer numbers back to where they were pre-pandemic, the Census Bureau noted. Additionally, according to Philanthropy News Digest, volunteer rates have actually decreased for 13 years straight now.
While volunteering does take precious time and energy, that doesn’t mean you should avoid it if you have the ability to participate. You could change your own life and the lives of others, just like Carr has. Who knows? Maybe one day you could be the oldest volunteer in the world.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
