Alice Duffy says she never even dared to dream of appearing on Broadway, but at the age of 81, that’s exactly what happened.

She earned a role in Noel Coward’s “Present Laughter,” starring Victor Garber. It was a role she had played in Boston in the professional Huntington Theatre Company.  She said the leap from Boston to the Great White Way was so unbelievable that she was a bit numb and overwhelmed on opening night.

Alice is one of those people who made a difficult choice early in life and chose family over career. She was the sister of beloved actor Peter Boyle, who went on to play the patriarch in “Everybody Loves Raymond,” and as she watched his career take flight, she wondered if she could have done the same.

Instead, she raised three children, one of whom is a producer for the NBC Nightly News. But she never lost her love of the theater. In fact, she says her life in the theater helped her go on after the deaths of her husband, siblings and more recently, her daughter. She says loss is part of life, but it’s how you deal with that loss that helps determine the quality of your life.

She’s proof that indeed, it is never too late to find a new life, career and to be rejuvenated.