LEWISTON – Her husband calls her Mary Poppins. Her friends call her a princess and a girly-girl.

Janelle Mathieu doesn’t mind those labels.

The 50-year-old nurse from Lewiston proudly admits she is overly trusting of people, she believes ignorance can be bliss and she has never pumped her own gas.

“I’ve never done it and I never will,” she said, giggling.

Mathieu’s ability to be herself and be proud of the things she has accomplished is partly what earned her a page in next year’s Gracefully Yours calendar.

Published by a nonprofit organization based in Kennebunk, the calendar honors women from all over New England who are 45 and older and have stories of courage and inspiration.

The women chosen for the calendar each represent a charity for which they raise money throughout the year.

Mathieu learned about Gracefully Yours after it was featured on a local news broadcast.

Sure she would never be chosen, the mother of three wrote a quick poem about herself and her charity of choice, the Children’s Behavioral Services unit at St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center where she works as a mental health nurse.

Mathieu’s poem mentioned her three adult children, whom she raised on her own while attending nursing school. It mentioned her older brother, who died in a drowning accident when he was 24.

And it described her commitment to her young patients, some of whom show up at St. Mary’s with torn and tattered clothes and heads full of lice.

“I think about those kids all of the time,” she said. “I want them to have the same things that all other kids have.”

Mathieu was astonished when the founder of Gracefully Yours, Joanne Grace, invited her to an interview at the Maine Mall in Portland.

Mathieu’s husband, whom she met after believing for years that she was too old to find love, assured her that she would be called back for a second interview. She didn’t believe it until she got the call.

Before her second and third interviews, Mathieu decided she wasn’t going to focus on her divorce or her brother’s drowning.

“At 50, everyone has had something happen to them. We all have disappointments in life,” she said. “I truly believe everything you do in life is a choice. You choose how you react. You can be sad and glum. Or you can count your blessings.”

After being selected for Mrs. April in the 2005 calendar, Mathieu was awarded a makeover and a photo shoot. It was at this event that she met the other 11 women.

She was honored to be among them.

They included a minister from Boston who works with prison inmates, an activist from Kennebunk who lost her son to suicide, an entrepreneur from Biddeford who lost 95 pounds and a woman from Revere, Mass., who survived two brain aneurysms.

“We don’t just look for women who have experienced traumatic events,” said Grace, the founder of Gracefully Yours. “We choose women who have used their experiences to evolve into powerful leadership positions.”