Fit and feisty after 80
Overcoming health challenges
through physical activity
Told
by Lucille Felts to Seasoned Voices Producer Claudette Artwick
What do yoga, fishing, and shopping carts have in common?
They’re all part of health and fitness activities for
90-year-old Lucille Felts. In the face of numerous
physical challenges--several heart surgeries, chronic back
problems, and macular degeneration--Felts keeps moving. “I’ve
got to have some kind of exercise,” says Felts. “At my age, you
can’t just sit down.” So, Felts uses a shopping cart to help
ease her chronic back pain. “I go with my daughter and
son-in-law to Lowes and places like that and I push the cart.
And they used to put things in my cart, and they swore that
people glared at them because this old lady was pushing the cart
and they were walking along, and should push their own cart.”
But
the exercise doesn’t stop there. Felts does yoga using a video
to help guide her through stretches and postures while seated in
a chair. A class at the Maury River Senior Center sparked her
interest, and on days when the class doesn’t meet, Felts follows
along with the tape at home. In fact, she wore out her tape and
is now on her second copy. Felts says the yoga helps relieve
her back pain. But what makes her feel best in body and spirit,
is fishing. “I stand out in the water and cast, says Felts.”
Her
favorite fishing spot is the Outer Banks, where she spends a
full month every year. “I love to catch bluefish because they
give you a struggle.” Her passion for fishing was cultivated as
a child. “When I was a little girl I stayed with my
grandparents, and my grandfather would dig worms and take me
fishing. And later, my mother loved to fish, and we went down
on the Rappahannock River and we would hire a boat. So fishing,
I love.”
Felts says she likes to eat what she catches. But if the fish
aren’t big enough to fillet, she puts them back. Then she
broils, bakes, or sautees the fish—only occasionally will she
fry them. “I don’t try to eat too much fried food,” says
Felts. “After my heart surgery they suggested you eat fruits
and vegetables and low fat, and I’ve been doing that.”
But
she does admit to loving banana splits, which she walked into
town to buy during her lunch hour years ago, while working as a
receptionist.
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