Evelyn Horwitz was eighty-four when doctors told her they had to amputate her right leg to prevent the spread of villonodular synovitis sarcoma, a rare form of cancer. But she maintains a good sense of humor about the amputation, which extended a bit above her leg. “I’m the half-buttless wonder,” Horwitz chortles.

Retired from the Flat Rock public schools since 1985, she’d continued to teach in Ypsilanti public schools and tutor English as a Second Language for xADWashtenaw Literacy. While her three kids nixed the idea of her driving a hand- xADoperated car, the amputation has hardly set Horwitz back. She still takes the AAATA’s A-Ride service to tutor four days a week, and she teaches aerobics (most of which can be performed from a sitting position) three days a week at Brookhaven Manor, where she lives.

She’ll celebrate her ninetieth birthday next month, but with no particular fanfare. “My daughter generally takes me out to dine at a Chinese or an Italian restaurant,” she says. “I don’t think there are any grandiose plans.”