HJNO Mar/Apr 2023

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS I  MAR / APR 2023 49 Jeré Hales Chief Operating Officer Lambeth House from making any major life-changing de- cisions during her chemotherapy stint. De- spite the advice, she decided to retire. She recalls telling the dean, “It’s not that I think I’m dying, it’s that I know I want to live.”On the day of her retirement, her husband had a stroke. They both moved into Lambeth House soon after, he in nursing care where he could receive 24-hour care and she in independent living where she could enjoy amenities for active seniors like the pool. The community there gives both of them what they need. As one looks at Beth today — energetic and agile with the slender, toned build of a woman decades younger — it is clear that she enjoys all the benefits of swimming. John McElree, wellness director at Lam- beth House, says that swimming provides a joint-friendly way to movement train. He says swimming and aquatic training offers seniors the best way to move vigorously with low risk of injury. The near weight- less environment is gentle on aging joints and provides an opportunity for increased flexibility and improved muscle strength and tone. The benefits, however, don’t stop there. Through some of Beth’s most chal- lenging times, she found peace and solace in the water. “Swimming is my meditation,” she says. Before purchasing her first Apple Watch (she has gone through three since beginning the 1,000-day challenge), she would track her laps by reciting various prayers and mantras. She often repeated the 23rd Psalm to mark time. A favorite mantra: “I am safe, I am grounded. The breath brings me home.” Three Apple Watches, a dozen swim- suits, and several swim caps later, the “Un- stoppable” Beth completed her 1,000 days of swimming. From her first traumatic in- troduction to swimming in college to her recent thousand-day personal record with over a thousand miles, she has remained steadfast and disciplined. Perhaps other seniors will see the value and will be in- spired to follow suit. n her first lesson: “I stood at the edge of the pool, cold and shivering, and I cried. I told the instructor, ‘You might as well send me back to Virginia because I can’t do this.’” From that first beginners’ swim class, she advanced to a life savings level and is now an avid swimmer, swimming through the best and worst of times of her life. As a lan- guage and literature professor at Tulane University, she swam. In 1993, after devel- oping pneumonia, she swam. After major back surgery to correct her spinal curva- ture in 1994, she swam. In 2016, she swam through three months of chemotherapy in her battle with breast cancer. She swam as she and her husband traveled beautiful Europe. And finally, in April 2020, as she and the rest of the world braved the CO- VID-19 pandemic, she swam. Beth has ocular albinism, an extremely rare genetic disorder characterized by nystagmus, reduced visual acuity, and sensitivity to sunlight. Because of this, she does not swim outside and prefers pools with clearly defined lanes for her lap rou- tines. Over the years, she has set several swim goals. One was to swim 250 miles in a year. Another was to swim every day that the pool was open for a year. However, she marks April 20, 2020, when Lambeth House reopened the Pointer Natatorium to its residents, as the moment that she became truly intentional in her commit- ment to swimming. Since then, she has not missed a single day, swimming at least an hour and at least a mile each day, clocking over 1,000 miles. Beth, a PhD in French, retired from Tulane University in 2017. She had been diagnosed the previous year with breast cancer and was undergoing treatment. She reflects on advice given to her to refrain Beth Poe swimming for the 1,000 th consecutive day.