Last year, at 63, I became the oldest American woman to summit Mount Everest. That record had stood for 17 years, according to the Himalayan Database , and it was broken again five days later. I was delighted. But beyond breaking any record, I wanted to prove that reinvention is possible at any age. I started climbing in my 60s after losing my husband Pat in 2018. I wanted to feel alive again. What began as grief slowly gave me a new sense of purpose. My goal now is to climb the Seven Summits