Farewell Dora The Explorer

I love you, Dora the Explorer

I became an aerobics instructor over fifteen years ago because it was the perfect job to have with small children. I could teach classes while my kids played in the daycare. As the years went on and my children were in school all day my focus moved from solely aerobics instructing to include personal training.  Even when I became the gym manager I continued to teach classes and to train.

My favorite classes to teach and people to train are the seniors. Their ages range from the sixties to the late eighties and their personalities are just as diverse as their ages. The one thing they all have in common is their desire to remain mobile and independent for as long as possible.

Our group is tight. They love and protect one another. When someone misses class there is talk right away of calling and checking in to be sure it's nothing serious. When someone new comes to class the seniors are quick to make the new comer feel welcome. With this kind of love and devotion it's no wonder that when we loose one of our precious members we feel it like a severed limb.

Four years ago a woman arrived in our class fresh from California. She had moved north to be closer to her family in Abbotsford, BC.  Dora's enthusiasm and infectious laugh pulled everyone in immediately. She was a fresh ray of sunshine in our often gray Bellingham. We lived vicariously through her travels. She would often take off for a few days to explore Washington further. She said she was in search of a drier climate because of her asthma. She would come back to class and report to us where she had ended up and why should could never live there. It was soon obvious that despite her asthma, Dora was not going to leave us. She was one of us. We gave her the name 'Dora the Explorer'.

Dora loved to dance, sing, and laugh. She thoroughly loved sports and watched every sport that came on television. Each Monday morning as the class congregated and caught up on each others lives she could be heard discussing the latest game. She was up on all the players and all the stats,  in all the different sports. It was amazing.

Dora was a jokester. She loved to tease and she could take a good teasing as well. She shared stories with us that had us all in stitches. Nothing kept her down. She had a bad shoulder and could not lift her left arm above her head but she would laugh it off and lift her left arm with her right hand and keep working out.

Over the years I have lost several of my seniors. I know it is inevitable but it is never easy. I was in Maui with my wife enjoying the warm sun and care free life of an islander when I got the news about Dora. It caught me so off guard that I thought it must be a mistake. I knew she had been down for a few days with what she thought was bronchitis. I should have been more concerned. She was an asthma sufferer after all. But Dora always came through. She was tough. As the reality of her passing began to set in I felt a bit of light leave the world.

Before I left Maui, I took two fragrant purple lei's and hung them from the door of an old church. Standing on the steps of the stone church, surrounded by sugar cane and palm trees, I sent a prayer of thanks to the heavenly father. What a blessing Dora had been to me, to our group and I am positive, to all who knew her.

As I travel through my life and encounter trials and heartaches my seniors advise me, comfort me, and often remind me that it could be much worse. They make me laugh, they make me smile, but most importantly they remind me that life is about people, it's about relationships. They've lived long enough to know that everything else is just the small stuff. I need them much more than they need me, however long or short that time may be.