At the age of 84 she was proclaimed a Doctor of Law with a vote of 90 out of 110 and the applause of the commission.
You are celebrating today for Maria Edda Cavuoto of Montesarchio, in the province of Benevento, who graduated from the Federico II University of Naples with a thesis on ecclesiastical law entitled "Freedom of conscience".
Accompanying her daughter Amelia, son-in-law and granddaughter.
The moment of the proclamation was accompanied by the applause of the other graduates and their families.
"It was no more difficult than the first degree - said Maria Edda, leaving the classroom - when things are done with pleasure they are not difficult and ecclesiastical law has always fascinated me".
The new doctor has already graduated in Letters, a title thanks to which she was a teacher of humanities in middle school.
Maria Edda - who was also a lieutenant in the Red Cross during her life - has no intention of stopping, she is already thinking about her next degree, probably in Political Science.
"I've always liked politics - she said - and I was a city councilor in my town".
Today's finish line means the crowning of a dream.
In fact, as a girl she would have liked to enroll in law with the aim of becoming a magistrate but then - as her daughter said - "times didn't allow it".
And so when she was able, Maria Edda took up the books again, she enrolled in the faculty and faced the 21 exams that separated her from her title of Doctor of Law that she had so much desired.
Not even the covid pandemic stopped it.
She waited for the exams to come back in person because, although she was only two away from graduation, she didn't want to take them online: she wanted to discuss them looking the teachers in the eye without means of intermediation.
And today she has achieved her goal, which however will not be celebrated with the traditional graduation party because - explained her daughter Amelia - "today is a normal thing for her, she does not think she has done anything exceptional".
Professor Maria D'Arienzo followed her in her thesis preparation process, underlining her student's "dedication and commitment".
"Accompanying her in her thesis process - said the professor - was stimulating and enriching from a professional and human point of view. For us as professors it was a gift because it brought positive energy, confirming that the university is a place of culture and of comparison and not only of training for professionalisation".