There are many mornings when I can hardly make myself get out of bed. I have a lot of back and neck pain and I know that it is important for me to keep exercising. I am the first to admit that I don’t like it. I know that it is necessary to try to do the best I can to keep healthy.
Over thirty-five years ago I joined fitness USA. I did aerobics, road the bikes and did water aerobics. I really enjoyed it, well the pool, whirlpool and the saunas. When I went through my divorce I had to work and didn’t want to leave my kids at home by themselves. I got away from it. Through the years I would start and stop going many times due to different things that were going on in my life.
I started back religiously about three years ago. I did the floor exercises and used the equipment. I hated it. I realized that if I was going to keep going that I was going to have to do something that I enjoyed. I started back doing the water aerobics. This is basically where my story begins.
Water aerobics doesn’t hurt my joints and I enjoy it more than any other kind of exercise. It is in the water aerobics class that I met Ginger Miller, Max Sailor and Marcelle. There are many other women that I have met that have been very inspirational, such as Mary Mansfield, whom I like to tease about looking like her relative Jayne.
Marcelle is 92 years old and is from France. She is a war bride and I am sure was a knock out when she was young. She is still a beauty. She says that she wishes I were her daughter. She never had any biological children. I tell her that I would be honored to be her daughter.
We celebrated her 92nd birthday in August. One of the girls, yes, we are still girls, took a bunch of photos which will be forever cherished especially under the circumstances.
Max and Ginger met in kindergarten. Max turned 87 in May. Ginger was 85 years old I believe in February. They were nearly inseparable. Ginger outlived two husbands. Her first died in a car wreck and her second of a brain aneurysm. She lost her only son, leaving her with a couple of nephews who took care of her after her brother died recently.
They shared stories with us about the lives that they shared. They with their husbands used to ride motorcycles with another couple. They square danced and led very active happy healthy lives. I believe because they joined Fitness USA together over 35 years ago and did water aerobics for most of those years that that is why they stayed as active and as healthy as they were.
When Ginger broke both of her arms after falling in her driveway, her beloved Max took care of her until she recovered. Ginger helped Max through a bout with breast cancer, from which she just recently was declared cancer free.
Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday morning they would show up at the spa. Sometimes some of us would go to lunch at Arby’s, or Taco Bell. As a group we would go out once a month for lunch.
There are many other stories that I could share about Ginger and Max but many of them are very personal. We all bonded over the years. I stood next to Max and Ginger was on her other side during water aerobics. I taught Max the lyrics to Chantilly Lace, as she couldn’t hear them well. When it came to the part about ” a big eyed girl, who makes me act so funny, makes me spend my money,” I would always point to my big-eyed girl Max. She loved to make faces, and we had that in common.
I sometimes wondered how they would deal with the loss of the one who passed on first. Many times relationships like their’s are even closer than even a husband’s and wife’s are. It is an example of how many times we can be closer to our friends than to family.
A week ago Thursday Max was getting ready to go on vacation with her husband. We finished water aerobics and I told her to have a good time. I apologized during aerobics for running into her with my long luscious legs. That was always a joke between us considering that I am so short.
Max, her husband Ernie, Ginger and another couple went to a haystack dinner on Friday night before they were to leave for vacation on Saturday. They were driving home, the three “girls” in the back, the husbands in the front seat. The girls were all killed instantly in an accident with a truck pulling an extra wide load.
The men were injured but survived. I can’t begin to imagine their loss. I was spared the news until Sunday afternoon. I had a day and a half reprieve of the gut wrenching loss of Max and Ginger. Fortunately I hadn’t watched the news and we don’t usually get a weekend paper. Ginger’s name hadn’t been released yet.
I am grateful that they showed me that growing old doesn’t mean that you have to give up having fun, and being fun to be with. I am so sorry for the loss to their families, friends and to me. I am grateful that even though their deaths were shocking, that they were quick and that they will be together in heaven without having to grief the loss of their best friend. I am grateful that they didn’t have to die slow lingering painful deaths. I am grateful that they probably never know what hit them.
I am grateful that because of them and others like them that I was motivated to do something that is good for me and that was fun, social and that I have a community of support. I am grateful that I still have many others to love like my dear friends Sharon and Cliffy at the Spa.
Their funerals are coming up and we will be supportive to each other. We will grief the loss and then we will go on. We won’t forget. We will reminisce fondly over our many memories. Good bye dear friends, you will not be forgotten. I look forward to seeing you on the other side. Max will be wearing her green strappy sandals and Capri pants. Ginger will be hugging herself and saying “Oh how good this sauna feels.” Max will bat her Betty Davis eyes and we will all sit down and break bread together on the other side.
God rest your souls Max and Ginger. I know that Jesus said, “Well done my faithful servants.”