At 82, PhD grad defying stereotypes
P.E.I. woman wrote thesis on lives and value of older, rural population
Olive Bryanton, 82, has dedicated much of her life to showcasing the strengths and value of seniors — but, at the brink of a PhD, almost didn’t take her own advice.
Bryanton, a later-in-life learner and activist, who recently graduated from the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) with a PhD, is making her TV debut this week alongside some of the participants in her research, which looked at how women over 85 are able to age on their own terms in rural communities.
Never Too Old, a new documentary following Bryanton as she finishes her doctoral thesis, premieres on CBC this Thursday and she’s waiting to watch it at a screening party with family and friends for the first time.
“Older adults are not vulnerable, they’re not needy people. We have to start looking at the strengths of the older adults and help build on the strengths they have — just like every other person,” Bryanton said in a recent interview from Winnipeg, where she was attending a Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW) conference.
Bryanton, from Hampshire, P.E.I., has gotten quite used to being the oldest student in the room. She did her undergrad in the early1980s, then worked for a while on the UPEI campus before doing a master’s degree that finished in 2009, in which she researched people over 70 who’d had to stop driving.
“That was such a devastating thing for people who live in rural communities,” Bryanton said.
That degree might have planted a seed of an idea for further studies, but Bryanton said she still thought it over for a long time. It wasn’t until 2013 she went to talk to the Faculty of Education’s co-ordinator of graduate studies, who was very supportive and encouraging.
She was accepted to the PhD in educational studies program in the summer of 2013. Five years later, in November 2018, Bryanton defended her thesis and passed with minor revisions before officially graduating in May.
Bryanton speaks fondly of her PhD committee, who called themselves “Team Olive,” and her fellow candidates — they had great discussions and cried on one another’s shoulders, she says. But at first, she had doubts, admitting that even she had ageist ideas when she started.
“I thought, ‘Oh dear, am I taking a space that a younger person should have because they still have their whole life ahead of them?’ ” she said.
“You know (that) you know better, (but) still feel … that maybe you don’t deserve it, maybe you shouldn’t take it.”
Reflecting on how she worked through that, Bryanton said she reminded herself of her own conviction that older adults deserve as much as anyone else — and “I started to enjoy it so much,” she said.
Bryanton said she wanted to focus her studies on older women because Canada has a rapidly aging population and there is not enough research being done on the subject — especially around what Bryanton calls the “90 per cent,” or the vast majority of seniors who live independently.
According to Statistics Canada, the 2011 census counted nearly 5 million seniors aged 65 and over in Canada. Of these, 92.1 per cent lived in private households (as part of couples, alone or with others) while 7.9 per cent lived in collective dwellings, such as residences for senior citizens or healthcare and related facilities.
“All we hear about is that older adults are a drain on society. That aging is a problem. Aging is not a problem, aging is a normal process of life,” Bryanton said.
“When you continually hear that it’s a problem, that the older adults are going to be the demise of health care, they’re going to be the demise of pensions … older adults are taking that in and believing it. It makes them feel that they’re not worthy.”
It’s important to realize the value of the older population, Bryanton said, even if they aren’t doing work that draws a paycheque.
Without the donations seniors make, and hours and hours of volunteer work, “society would come to a halt.”
Bryanton said she knows most seniors defy stereotypes because she does herself and knows many women who do the same. To prove her thesis, she recruited10 women, ages 85 to 91, who choose to live in rural P.E.I., and gave each of them a camera to photograph what supported or limited their ability to “age in place,” which means in their own way and own rural areas.
A main takeaway from her research was how much control they have over their own lives, Bryanton said.
“We never see or hear about older women either, and I really wanted to do something that was going to make older women visible,” Bryanton said.
“To show that, in reality, older women are still very busy and very active and very involved in their communities, but you really have to have the research to show that, yes, that does happen.”
Bryanton has been an advocate for seniors all of her life, inspired in large part by the grandparents who raised her, she mentions in the documentary.
She has worked with various agencies, associations and committees — and still is — all while pursuing a PhD.
Through the film, viewers meet 89-year-old Nan, who admits she still feels sexual; Ruby, 87, who organizes a seniors’ club; and 91-year-old Theresa, who still happily cuts the grass on her ride-on mower. “They were amazing women, they really were,” Bryanton said with a laugh.
“That’s what we all should think we will be. We shouldn’t think we’re going to be in a nursing home. We should think we’re going to be one of those people who’s out there still cutting our own lawn, or charming the world, because anything is possible if we don’t let ourselves be limited by ageism.”
The “photovoice” method of Bryanton’s research is meant to make social change, which it already has.
Tina Mundy, former Liberal family and human services minister for P.E.I., attended an open house on Bryanton’s study where participants’ photos were displayed and the women themselves were on hand for questions.
Mundy spent a lot of time talking with the women, Bryanton said, and Mundy later told her when she left that her head was “spinning” with ideas.
Soon after the July 2017 open house, Mundy announced a Seniors Independence Initiative in November that year, which would provide funding for lowincome seniors to help them with housekeeping, meal preparation, snow removal and general maintenance so they could continue living at home.
“It’s not a lot of money, but it’s a darn good start,” Bryanton said.
“It was really, really exciting. Never thought we’d have that happen.”
Now that Bryanton’s finished her PhD, after years of retirement, she’s back to work in her new career as an academic.
She guest lectures (including once in her granddaughter’s nursing class), represents P.E.I. in various conferences, works with scholars across Canada conducting their own research on aging and already has a new project interviewing older adults with diabetes and at least one other chronic illness.
Embodying another example of finding strength in an older person’s experience, Bryanton said she believes her age makes her especially well-suited to her work.
If someone is close to the age of the people they’re researching, the subjects tend to be more comfortable because they feel that you’re in their category and have experienced the same things, she said.
Dream Street Pictures’ Never Too Oldpremieres on Thursday at 9 p.m. on CBC Docs POV and the free CBC Gem streaming service.