In February, Canadians think of matters of the heart, including Valentine’s Day and, on a less romantic but more practical note, Heart and Stroke Month. As a salute to Active Living, Forever Young’s 25th-anniversary theme, we waded into Martha’s Vineyard, a seniors residence in Burlington, Ont., to ask three seniors about activities that got their hearts racing, past and present.

Field hockey hotshot

Sheila Williams is and has always been a very active person. She is also a woman born with only one hand.

Williams was born into a loving family in Bristol, England in 1931. With three siblings, she was raised to behave the same as her sister and brothers despite her handicap.

“I was not limited by my disability,” says Williams. “My parents were very natural about it and I really knew no different.”

Spending her youth in England, a notable sporting nation, it was natural to be involved in many physical activities. But it was an unlikely choice, being one-handed, that Williams would become passionate about field hockey. She speaks of a revolutionary moment in her young life as if it were yesterday.

“I remember we were playing a game called “shinty” – it was like field hockey. And it was the first time I held a stick. It was three o’clock in the afternoon, and I went down a tiny slope at my elementary school to retrieve the ball. It was in the grass, and I remember the joy of feeling it in my hand, and my life was lit up. That was the beginning of what would eventually lead to playing and coaching field hockey.”

Williams says she was a natural at sports, and played everything from cricket to tennis. Hailing from a girls’ school, says Williams, “I wouldn’t have known what to do with my life without playing tennis and badminton.”

Committed to physical fitness her whole life, it was when Williams discovered tai chi that she really came into her own, embracing the free-style activity.

“You don’t just give up and think you can’t do something. I go to all the fitness classes here and still like to stretch, walk and eat well. At this age people should keep flexible – find out what you love and do it!”


There’s no stopping Pamela

Pamela McInerney is as lovely to look at as she is to listen to. Hailing from London, England, born in 1924, McInerney is sharp, well-spoken, active – and now blind.

As a youngster growing up in Cornwall, it was natural for McInerney to walk miles along the cliff paths and woods. “My father and I would go for very long walks on Sundays with my twin sister and brother. We would swim in the ocean and ride our bikes.”

Attending boarding school, sports were a daily part of the curriculum. “We played everything,” says McInerney, “from lacrosse, cricket, tennis, squash and field hockey – and I loved all of it.”

A Navy girl, McInerney was strong and active at 18 years when stationed in Egypt. It was not unusual for her to have a daily game of tennis in the mid-day sun with the girls in their downtime.

McInerney married and had her children in Canada, where she spent years being a devoted wife, mother and volunteer. In fact, it was during this time when she was awarded one of 40 honours across Canada for her contributions to Toronto’s Covenant House, a shelter for youth.

Today at Martha’s Vineyard, Pamela McInerney is admired by many. Though 86 years old and with only 10-per-cent vision, she is renowned for her active lifestyle. “I don’t want to be cut off from doing anything come spring, so I exercise here and go to Pauline’s fitness class three times a week, walk the longest of corridors and climb the four flights of stairs.”

McInerney takes pride in the fact that she doesn’t need so much as an aspirin to keep fit and active. “I believe all good things come to those who live right. And that means doing everything in moderation and living healthy.”

Travelling alone to downtown Toronto, using a white cane, McInerney thinks nothing of boarding the GO train.

“Gentlemen help me get on the subway and accompany me. It is really rather lovely.”

Goodall uses it so he doesn’t lose it

The first thing that 86-year-old Graham Goodall would want everyone to know is that he considers himself the luckiest guy in the world!

Ottawa born, Goodall was raised in Montreal. Living not far from a local ski hill, he took to the sport at an early age. “We would take our skis to school, put them on straight away at 3:30, and ski to the mountain, down the mountain, across the railroads tracks and right up to my front door in time for dinner.”

A tall, boisterous man with a large grin and a zest for living, Goodall has led the good life. Forever a member of his beloved Burlington Golf and Country Club, he continues to meet weekly with his golf buddies for lunch and laughter.

The first to admit he was never really any good at the sport, until recent years Goodall enjoyed playing, the views and the walking.  “Our parents were golfers. My brother and I started young. We would get out on a Saturday morning, play 18 holes, break for lunch and go back for another 18.”

When Goodall and family moved to Burlington and he worked for CIL, his boss bought a corporate membership to the Burlington Golf and Country Club.

“Every day I would be walking what they say is equivalent to four miles. It is most likely why I stayed so fit.”

Sadly, Goodall has suffered some minor strokes that have affected his balance but not his ability to stay in shape.

“It would be very easy to stay in my comfortable Lazyboy, but I make myself get off my ass and go to the stretch and tone classes, physiotherapy, and I walk. There are times I think, oh dear, but I must, and force myself.”

Goodall says he cannot wait to get outdoors and go for walks in safer weather. “I am by nature a lazy bugger, but I do believe you have to keep moving – use it or lose it.”