A 74-year-old passed her driving test after just five months despite ‘shaking’ with nerves during her first lesson.
Linda Ning got behind the wheel last year after a move from the city convinced her she needed to get her licence.
She had sat a test in the 1970s in a Ford Anglia and failed but was determined to follow her dream of being able to drive despite her age.
Linda was taught by an instructor from the AA Driving School and she was awarded her licence last month after just over five months of lessons.
Linda and her husband Michael had lived in London for years and admitted they didn’t see the need for a car as public transport was readily available and convenient.
But a move to Yorkshire in 2020 saw them finding getting about more of an issue and that’s when Linda decided it was time to learn to drive.
She said: “Whilst living in London there wasn’t the need for either myself or my husband to drive as public transport was readily available. Once we moved back to Yorkshire it became clear that we needed a car to get around.
“When I’ve been a passenger in someone else’s car I’d always mentally been behind the wheel, now I get to drive for real!”
She was taught by Nuray Inal and said she was a bag of nerves when she first got behind the wheel.
Linda added: “I was terrified when I first got behind the wheel with Nuray, but her calmness and patience put me at ease, and now I can’t wait for my new car to arrive and to start driving myself and my husband to places such as church or to see my sister in Whitby.”
Nuray said Linda was ‘shaking’ on her first lesson. She said: “When I first met Linda, she told me that it was her dream to learn how to drive. She was shaking when she first got in the car with me so I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.
“I had to adjust the way I teach, as everyone learns in a different way particularly if they are a little older. I kept talking her through the manoeuvres and prompting her a lot. We both worked really hard.
“Having given up learning back in the 1970s, Linda is a good example of people returning to learning years later.”
Linda is now looking forward to getting behind the wheel of her own car. She has just purchased an electric Peugeot 208, and is gearing up to embrace the EV lifestyle by having a charger fitted at her house.
Older people passing their test isn’t as rare you might think. Last year almost 6,000 people over 60 sat a driving test with 2,039 passing.
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