102-year-old Ida Potter Keeling is a mother, activist, and runner. Miss Ida, as she is known in her Bronx community, grew up the child of immigrants during the Depression. She began working to help provide for her family at age 12. After her husband passed, she raised her four children alone in a single bedroom apartment while serving as an active member in the Civil Rights movement. She started running at 67 years old to chase away the grief following the murders of her two sons. Today, Ida is a world record-holder for the 60-meter dash in the 95-99 age group, the 100-meter dash for the 100-104 age group, and continues to set new records with each race.
Anita Diggs is the author of seven fiction and nonfiction books. As an editor and senior editor at Time Warner Publishing, Thunder’s Mouth Press, and Random House, she acquired and edited both fiction and memoir. She holds a BA from the State University of New York/Empire State College and an MFA in Creative Writing and Memoir from Hunter College.
