GLENWOOD, Iowa (KMTV) —
- Video shows...water exercise class at the Mills County YMCA. A brightly lit pool with a group of women in a class. Some are wearing reindeer antlers on their heads.
- Margaret Jones is 97 years old and regularly attends a water exercise class at the Mills County YMCA. She celebrated her birthday last month with friends from the class. One of their rituals is going down the slide at the pool on someone's birthday.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
I’m at the Mills County YMCA and one of the aquatic reindeer in the water exercise class behind me just celebrated her 97th birthday. I'm your southwest Iowa neighborhood reporter Katrina Markel and I spoke with Margaret Jones about why this group of ladies, and this class, keeps her happy and healthy.
“Well, it keeps me going for one thing. And these people here are wonderful people. They’re like family to me. They take care of me. They go turn on my shower for me. They say I'm an example, you know, to look forward to, for when they get old. They’re all young, you know.”
Jones is a retired school teacher .. grew up in Sioux City, taught in Arizona, and moved back to Iowa about 15 years ago.
Her classmates at the Y were an important part of her most recent birthday celebration, last month.
“Oh, it means a lot, it means a lot. I couldn't do it without them. They’re like family.”
Jones – born the same year as Queen Elizabeth – celebrated her birthday with a class tradition: going down the slide.
And lunch with her fellow swimmers at a Mexican restaurant.
Diana Burchett: “This class on Monday, sometimes we call splash and gab because they have the most fun of all.”
That’s Mills County Y Executive Director Diana Burchett…
“My career at the Y, I've seen people come in with walkers and, after about maybe 6 months, they don’t have that walker anymore. I’ve seen people come in with a severe case of loneliness and depression … and it turns them all the way around."
Sfter almost a decade of going to the Y… friends say Margaret's an inspiration… part of a sisterhood…
“You know, when you see people with wet hair and a bathing suit…there’s nothing else to hide…”
