THE SOUTH AFRICAN
"SOCCER GRANNIES"

October 27, 2023
5-6:00 pm EST

Join us to hear this inspiring story of the South African Soccer Grannies!  

This team of 40-80 year old women in rural South Africa defy social convention to play soccer for the health benefits and the companionship it provides.  Their strength and resiliency help them face life's challenges with dignity, honor and hope.  They teach the rest of us that age, gender, and expectations need not define you.

Author Jean Duffy, a soccer player from Lexington MA and someone who found her second career later in life, tells us this powerful story.  Don't miss it.

Jean and her team traveled to Africa for the first ever Grannies Tournament in March.  There were teams from France, Denmark, America, Togo, Mali, Senegal, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi.  The oldest American player was 79 years old!

 

Jean Duffy is a nonfiction writer with published essays in the Boston Globe, Concord Monitor, Lexington Observer, PBS Next Avenue, and NPR/WBUR Cognoscenti.     Soccer Grannies: The South African Women Who Inspire the World  is her first book.  (Roman & Littlefield, 2023)  

Jean can be found on the soccer field in Lexington, Massachusetts where her team, the Lexpressas, have been playing for some twenty years.  When she's not pounding her fingers on the keyboard or flubbing a shot on goal, she might be consulting with nonprofits, helping people downsize, or doing crossword puzzles with her husband at their home in Somerville, MA.  
jean duffy