Names: Enoe and Judy
Careers: Enoe is a retired nurse, and Judy is a retired dancer and dance instructor.
Hometowns: Enoe was born in Nicaragua but has lived in the US since 1972. She's married to a Navy man with deep roots in Harrison. Judy moved to Harrison from Oregon after retirement to help care for her older sister.
"I could not wait for Creekside to open," Enoe said. I was here the first week!" Having lived in bigger cities (like Little Rock and Naples, Florida), she missed aquatic exercise and was eager to get going again. She invited her neighbor Judy to join her, and now they meet twice a week in the mornings.
"I'm trying to talk her into more," Judy confided with a smile.
As a retired dancer from Oregon who moved here to help her sister, Judy was dearly missing movement and exercise. "I'm not a spring chicken anymore," she said gently. "My body's starting to tell me that I'm going to lose what I've got left if I don't use it."
The pair took our aqua aerobics classes for a bit, but now exercise independently in the therapy pool with the aqua weights and the movements they've learned.
Judy has an inherited condition that affects her eyesight as she ages; the condition that brought her to Arkansas to care for her sister has begun to affect her. She relies on Enoe to bring her to Creekside. "A lot I used to do, I can't do anymore," she admits. But I can get in the water and move, do the barre exercises I used to be able to do in the studio. It's very helpful."
Enoe sees her health as a spiritual responsibility. "We are fearfully and wonderfully made," she declared, quoting Scripture. "Our job is to take care of this body so that we can (care for others)."
"I appreciate the early hours," Judy said, smiling. "It really starts my day off right to come here first and get exercise." She said the rest of her day goes better, and she has much more energy when she starts it by coming and using the therapy pool.
Enoe wants to encourage others to give Creekside a try. She also noted that forming friendships (even just smiling and nodding at others that they've begun to recognize as they visit regularly) feels good. "Human relationships are important, you know," she said. "I'm so thankful for that. I want my other neighbor to come with us ... she never leaves her house, and is so lonely. This would be good for her."
"Get moving!" Enoe declared. "If you want to enjoy your body, enjoy life, you have to keep going."
(Do you know someone who benefits from their Creekside membership and would be willing to share a few things about their story? Let us know! email kfulton@harrisonar.gov)