Who says that learning is for the young alone? There may be an time and age for everything, but if you have the curiosity and enthusiasm of Holly Woodsworth, then learning is a lifelong process.At 66, Holly has proved that life is what you make of it. For the lady has taken up an unusual hobby - jigsaw puzzles. Piecing together those images seems very simple, but when you have to deal with a 1,000- or 1,500-piece jigsaw, the feat is quite stunning.Apart from the fact that Holly is a senior citizen, she is also deaf and mute. She was only a few months old when diphtheria and measles struck her. Treatment, in those days, was limited. She, however, went to a convent school, where she was taught the English alphabet and household skills such as sewing.Unmarried, she lives with her older unmarried sister, Joyce. Joyce is still working full-time as a teacher and has no time to keep house. It is Holly who does the housekeeping. And she pursues her interest in her spare time. In 1990, she began to develop a skill that is extremely difficult to take up at that age. She started putting jigsaw puzzles together!She has been gifted about 30 puzzles and the average number of pieces is 500 each. She has tackled 1,500 puzzling pieces as well and each of these is not more than an inch in size. She takes anything from minutes to hours to days to complete one, all depending on the complexity and size of the jigsaw.After completing the household chores, she relaxes with her miniature pieces. As Joyce says, her handicap has given her a highly developed sense of perception and patience ideal for the kind of pastime she has chosen. She has carefully catalogued each jigsaw puzzle, its name, number of pieces and the date of putting the pieces together. Whenever she has free time on hand, she happily returns to her tiny friends and spends hours with them. Her relatives in India and abroad pitch in and send her these puzzles as gifts. Knowing her passion for them, her delight at this is hardly puzzling.
