Now she’s a college graduate and a grandmother.
Bayside resident Anita Sokol, 62, had to wait until June 4 – one week after her Queens College graduation and her daughter’s due date – to become the proud grandmother of Dahlia.
“I don’t think my feet have touched the ground,” said the proud grandmother. Dahlia was the first child for Sokol’s daughter Lauren and son-in-law Armen, and mother and daughter came home for the hospital on Monday, June 8 – both in good health.
“This was probably one of the most delightful days of my life, when I watched my daughter fall in love with her baby,” Sokol said.
Sokol, who took her first college class in 1969, got married and had kids – putting her education on hold. Since then, the divorced mother of two has worked for a company that provides on-site services and off-site health and wellness clinics to many large companies.
Every semester for the next 10 years, Sokol took a class towards her major, all the while balancing a full-time work schedule, which often involved traveling throughout the country, with raising two children.
Sokol graduated summa cum laude from Queens College on May 28, and she received a special recognition in front of all of the graduates from Queens College President James Muyskens during the ceremony.
Although she has remained on “Cloud Nine” from the two recent events, for Sokol there was no comparison as to which one was better.
“The joy of being Dahlia’s grandmother exceeds the joy of my graduation,” Sokol said. “I had to wait a long time for both of them and both of the experiences were worth the long wait.”
