I asked Edna to share her story. She happily agreed and sent me this gem. 

My life of exercise...

When my first child was born, we lived in a third-storey walkup, and I took our laundry to a laundromat.  Carrying the baby and managing the stroller in the city, along with general housework, probably developed my aerobic capacity.  Our next home, in the western town where my second child was born, was a house in a new development, where I planted a new landscape and laid a brick walk.  We went skiing in the Rockies every winter, and the children grew up skiing in the winter and swimming in the summer.  

When my children were in elementary school and I started graduate work in Albuquerque, I had a very large yard to manage, where I mowed the lawns with a push mower.  In that place, we could ride our bicycles to church, and I could ride my bicycle to the university.  All of us lived very active lives.  By the time I got my advanced degree and began to work full time in offices, I had adopted a morning exercise routine that enabled me to start my day limber and refreshed.  

Later, I was able to take up long-distance bicycle riding, and when I moved to Baltimore I learned to ride on city streets as well as to explore the countryside and use bicycle trails.  I could walk to the central downtown, and bicycle or walk to several parks.  I got acquainted with the place and its history on walking tours. And in Baltimore I lived in a three-storey house and could do some of my morning exercises on the roof deck.      

Life like this made exercise mostly an easy part of everyday life and pleasures.  But as I approached my 70th year, I was beginning to have symptoms of a hereditary ailment that makes my feet clumsy.  I moved to Glen Ellyn to live near my son, and here I met Rebecca Boskovic as a member of St Mark's church.  When she offered the 2nd Wind program that could include me, I attended and found that her approach is both sensible and full of variety.  I also enjoy being in the small group of people working together.  

I want to explore particular activities that can maintain my muscular strength and control despite my limitations.  Rebecca's expert coaching helps me find the muscles that need maintenance and focused exercises to strengthen them.  She doesn't fail to keep us mindful of the heart and lungs, exercising the whole body in each short workout session, as well as those eternal and universal practices of balance and breathing.  Having these two sessions most weeks helps me to keep my whole body functioning in all my day's activities, keeping my limitations to the minimum. 

Edna Heatherington

The pleasure is all mine, Edna . . . all mine.

- Coach Rebecca