WORCESTER—You wouldn’t be all wet if you thought the YWCA swimming pool served as a fountain of youth for women in their 90s.
In fact, the water exercise classes have made a big splash with them.
Janet Donahue, 90, of Cherry Valley and Phyllis Roughan, 90, of Worcester usually take part in a 45-minute water exercise class three mornings a week. Joanne Tierney, 90, of Worcester used to attend regularly and still takes part occasionally.
The three nonagenarians have coffee at McDonald’s in Tatnuck Square on Fridays and go out to eat and to movies together as well. All three are widows and they each graduated from St. Peter’s High School, Donahue in 1951 and the others a year later.
About 15 people take part in each water exercise class, including some in their 80s as well as their 90s.
“I tell everyone that water is the best drug,” class instructor Cynthia Drelinger. “It’s calming and soothing. You get exercise without damaging yourself. Many doctors have told their patients that they have recovered from knee or hip surgery quicker because of the water exercise.”
The women also enjoy each other’s company and as they say, laughter is the best medicine.
“We laugh so much about stupid things,” Roughan said.
Donahue credits the water exercise class with keeping her healthy.
“I’m a happy person,” Donahue said. “People make me happy. So many times in this cold weather I’ve wanted to say, ‘I’m not going to the pool. It’s freezing.’ You come out and you get all chilled, but I just love being with people. People make me happy.”
While standing in the shallow end of the pool, the women work with weights, kickboards, balls and noodles. They jump around and move their arms and legs while music plays.
“It’s exercise and if I didn’t do that, what would I be doing, sitting home watching television?” Donahue said. “I’m a goer and a doer. I couldn’t just sit around doing nothing.”
The three friends attribute their longevity to remaining active and staying together. Roughan lived away from Worcester from age 21 until 65, but she renewed friendships with the others when she returned.
“If I hadn’t been able to do that,” she said, “if I just came in cold without friends, I don’t think I’d still be here.”
Combined, the three women have 14 children, 29 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren, with one more on the way. They all still drive cars, clean the house, do the laundry, shop for groceries and cook the meals.
Roughan reads for five hours a night. She used to walk for 20-25 minutes every morning until about three years ago, but she still keeps herself busy by making earrings and growing plants on her back porch and selling them. Last Thanksgiving, she hosted 24 family members at her home.
Last summer, Tierney played golf on Tuesdays at Leicester Country Club and on Wednesdays with her daughter in Suffield, Conn. She still shovels now and rakes leaves.
Donahue has always been active and she used to enjoy going for hour-long walks from her home in Cherry Valley to Webster Square and back home. She has swum for 25 years and Roughan has swum for about 20. The two took water aerobics at the Jewish Community Center before switching to the YWCA in downtown Worcester a handful of years ago.
“I’ve never been quiet or still,” Donahue said. “I’ve always been on the go.”
Each week, Donahue goes out to lunch with a couple of her children. Each month, she has lunch with the Leicester Women’s Club, with her fellow St. Peter High graduates and at the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Roughan also belongs to the AOH.
Donahue also volunteers at events at St. Joseph-St. Pius X Parish in Leicester.
The exercise helps Donahue cope with the arthritis that runs throughout much of her body.
“Does it help? We have to say yes, right?” she said.
Donahue has walked with a cane since she broke her left wrist when she slipped and fell on the grass while running to Mass at Our Lady of the Angels Parish a little more than a year ago. Despite the broken wrist, she attended Mass that day.
“Because I’m a tough one,” she said.
Drelinger called the women an inspiration.
“Definitely,” she said. “I hope I am like them when I get older.”
Asked if she believed she was inspiring others to keep exercising, Donahue replied, “I would hope so.”
Longevity runs in Donahue’s family. Her mother lived until she was 93 and her father lived until 95.
“I can’t even see dying,” Donahue said, “but I know I’ve got to go someday. I keep saying, ‘Don’t take me right now. I’m still having a good time.’”
So what is the secret to longevity?
“Luck,” Roughan said.
Of course, exercise helps. So do genes. Roughan’s maternal grandmother lived until she was 94.
Asked what it felt like to be 90, Roughan replied, “It’s really no different than being 60 as far as I can figure out. We don’t feel 90. I’m not saying there aren’t days when we have a problem, but most of the time, no. Sometimes we act like 18-year-olds.”
Donahue’s husband, John P. “Jack” Donahue, died of a heart attack in 1991. They met at St. Peter High School where she was a cheerleader and he was a basketball star. He went on to play for American International College.
Roughan’s husband, Paul, died in 2008.
Tierney joined the YMCA last year and takes water exercise classes once or twice a week.
“I think it keeps me more limber,” Tierney said.
She previously took aerobics classes at the Greendale YMCA.
Tierney has outlived two husbands. Her first husband, Frederick Reilly, died in 1970 and her second husband, John Tierney, died in 2014.
So what’s the secret to her longevity?
“My attitude and my friends,” Tierney said, “and my family.”
Ninety and still going strong. That’s inspirational.
Bill Doyle has been a professional journalist for 47 years, most of them as a sports writer for the Telegram & Gazette. He covered the Boston Celtics for 25 years and has written extensively about golf, boxing and local high school and college sports. He also worked for the campus newspaper when he attended UMass-Amherst. He can be reached at billdoyle1515@gmail.com
