It’s been 80 years but, finally, Georgia McGarry has her high school diploma.
The 99-year-old Ohio woman received the credential from the Switzerland of Ohio Local School District at a board of education meeting last week, Superintendent Phil Ackerman tells PEOPLE.
“It was a special moment watching her move her tassel from right to left as I held her cap for her,” Ackerman says. “She had such an incredible smile on her face.”
McGarry thought she was going to dinner but was instead honored at the surprise ceremony.
“It means an awful lot, because that was a long time ago — 1944,” she told NBC affiliate WTOV.
McGarry was originally set to graduate from Woodsfield High School that year but had to drop out in order to help support her family during World War II, according to WTOV.
“I quit high school in 1944 and went to work then,” McGarry, who turns 100 in a few months, said. “In those days, work wasn’t plentiful and I quit because my family needed me.”
Marie Adams helped plan the special graduation ceremony after realizing her friend’s long-held dream.
“This has been something she’s wanted her whole life, and being 99 years old I thought it was important that she get her diploma,” Adams told WTOV.
McGarry was able to get her diploma thanks to a provision in the Ohio Revised Code which allows students who left school to join the work force during the war to still be awarded their degrees, according to The Times Leader. That means McGarry is now officially a member of the Class of 1944.
Ackerman shares that her diploma is dated May 19, 1944, the day she would have graduated from the school.
“Georgia made such a huge sacrifice, it was so special, 80 years later, to make her wish come true,” Ackerman says. “It was such an honor for the school district to be able to make her biggest regret in life go away.”
