This is the second installment in The Pueblo Chieftain's series about people who have achieved personal success in 2016, whether it was overcoming adversity, attaining a personal goal or simply making it through another day. The series will continue daily through Dec. 29. We hope you are as inspired by these stories as we have been.

CANON CITY -- He made a promise to his dying mother that he would get a degree in nursing.

It was a surprising turn of events for Jake McCasland, whose previous 43-year career was engineering.

It was even more surprising considering the nursing student at Pueblo Community College's Fremont Campus turned 66 this year.

It was especially phenomenal in light of the major heart attack he suffered two weeks before the fall semester classes began, yet he still managed to get through and take his finals last week.

"Here I was chugging right along when my mother Geraldine McCasland called five years ago and said she could not live alone anymore," he said.

McCasland is the only one out of his four siblings who could come home, be his mom's caretaker and allow her to live out her life in the home where she had resided since 1958. McCasland's mother was so special to him that he couldn't bear to see her leave that home and move into an assisted living facility.

"I moved in and gave her 24-hour care," McCasland said. "I knew nothing about caring for the elderly, so I took a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) course so I would be able to take care of her properly."

McCasland took such good care of his mother that she "perked right up and had her friends over to sew and went to lunches with friends," he said.

Although McCasland's grandmother Lavina was a "World War II, 1950s-type of nurse back in the day when the profession was all women," he never considered going into nursing.

"My mother was 19 when I was born, so when I looked at her I saw myself in 20 years, and I did not want to be helpless," he explained.

So McCasland started taking more night classes, like anatomy and nutrition, and got straight As while taking care of his mother during the day. He finished all the prerequisites for a nursing degree.

"She encouraged me to apply for nursing school, and at 64 I said, 'I don't think so,' but she talked me into it. And I was very surprised when I was accepted," McCasland said.

Out of 300 applications, only a few more than 100 students are accepted into the program, so it is often a long wait to get into the nursing school.

"I started the program, and she made me promise I would finish this. I had a good quality three years with her before she died (in 2013)," McCasland said.

The intense Associate Degree in Nursing program that will earn him the title of registered nurse when he finishes in May has been hard and stressful work.

McCasland has a degree in engineering and worked as an oil field engineer for 43 years.

"We built power plants, refineries and off-shore drilling rigs," he said.

Nursing school, he said, was the "hardest thing I've ever done in my life.

"And the heart attack two weeks before classes started didn't help."

Along the way, McCasland did clinical work at St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center in Pueblo and at the Bruce McCandless Colorado State Veterans Nursing Home in Florence.

"I've delivered babies, cared for cancer patients, worked in pediatrics, worked with the elderly and assisted with same-day surgery," he said. "When we graduate, we are ready and completely prepared (for a career in nursing)."

Although he is 35 to 40 years older than his fellow students, McCasland said they treat him as an equal.

"It wasn't easy, but I am in with a real good group of students who are really good about helping out. The only thing that limits you is yourself," he said.

McCasland is scheduled to begin working in January at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo, where he will distribute medicines to patients during two 12-hour shifts each week, on top of spending 40 hours a week in school.

He said it is ironic he is starting a new career at the age when most of his peers are retiring.

"I don't feel old, so why shouldn't I? I would rather drop dead doing something I enjoy than sit doing nothing," McCasland said.

"I was going to turn 66 anyway, and I could be retired or I could be an RN who makes a huge difference. To do that is what life is about -- it is the journey -- and the impact on lives will have made it more enjoyable."

tharmon@chieftain.com