ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE; OLDER LEARNERS TAKE WHEEL INTO THEIR OWN HANDS WITH DRIVING LESSONS.(Life - Family)

Byline: MICHAEL LISI SPECIAL TO THE TIMES UNION

Before her husband got sick, Lynn Reich never had a reason to learn how to drive.

For most of her 70 years, she lived in Queens, in Forest Hills. The subway was down the block from her house. A bus stop was just down the street. Cabs were everywhere.

Her husband, Howard, had a license. Whether to go shopping or to socialize, she'd simply hop in the family car. He'd slide behind the wheel, and away they'd go.

Reich toyed with getting her license when the couple moved to Niskayuna in 1997. But why bother?

Then, her husband couldn't drive anymore.

Heart problems had him in and out of the hospital last year; six months ago, he had a defibrillator surgically implanted in his heart. Fearful that he might faint behind the wheel, Howard Reich decided that it was best to put away the car keys.

Lynn Reich had other ideas.

"It was terrible, I felt like I was a prisoner without a car," said Reich. "I was driving my daughter Stacy crazy and my son-in-law David nuts asking them for rides. So I realized that I was really going to have to learn to drive, and I wasn't sure how to go about doing that. I was really frightened."

In April, on her 70th birthday, friends bought her a gift bag containing a leather steering wheel cover, a pair of …