Allison.

If you had to describe Allison in a single habit, it would be this: she finishes things, and she finishes them the long way.

She raised eight children and homeschooled every one of them — which is to say she ran a small school for the better part of two decades, wrote its curriculum, kept its standards, and started the societies that gave the lessons somewhere to lead. She taught all eight of them violin and piano. Some went as far as Carnegie Hall.

Music is hers, too, not just something she handed down. She plays piano and accordion, and she still plays in a band — the kind of playing you do for the love of it, in a room full of other people who feel the same way.

And she walks. The Camino de Santiago across northern Spain. The trek to Everest Base Camp, up into the thin air. And the Appalachian Trail, section by section over years, with only a few short stretches left before the whole 2,000-some miles are joined end to end.

None of it was done quickly. That's rather the point.

The short version

Mother of eight. Homeschool teacher. Founder of societies. Pianist and accordionist. Camino pilgrim, Everest Base Camp trekker, and very-nearly-finished Appalachian Trail hiker. Fifty-five years old as of today, and still gaining elevation.