Every Wednesday at 9:45 a.m., students sink into the pool at the South Arlington YMCA for a water aerobics workout filled with movement, weights and plenty of cheers.<\/p>\n
The class is open to all ages, but the oldest person at the pool isn’t in the water. She’s leading the workout.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am 94 years old,\u201d Samantha said.<\/p>\n
And retirement? Not yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot retired. Still going,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Water has been a theme throughout Samantha’s life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI lived in the water. My mother knew where I was all the time, in the water,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She eventually made a career of it. At 18, Samantha worked as a mermaid at Weeki Wachee Aquatic Theater in Florida.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is a mermaid. You know that she worked at Weeki Wachee,\u201d one woman in the class said.<\/p>\n
Old photographs and postcards offer glimpses of Samantha’s days performing underwater.<\/p>\n
Her time in the spotlight didn’t end with her days as a mermaid. Looking at an old newspaper clipping, Samantha recalled receiving media attention years later.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I was 81 years old. They thought I was old then,\u201d she said, laughing.<\/p>\n
Now, at 94, it’s her energy that gets people’s attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see some people that are a lot younger wobbling, and she walks in here spry, full of energy,\u201d one woman said. \u201cShe’s an inspiration. If she can do it, hey, maybe I can too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another student agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s kind of motivating to watch a 94-year-old lady have the strength and courage to come every week,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For Samantha, getting people moving is about more than exercise.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy ministry is just showing them that they can do it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Week after week, she keeps the class moving, jogging and lifting their knees through the water.<\/p>\n
Samantha wants her students to see age as just a number.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I don’t lack anything being 94 years old, and you can do the same thing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC DFW. AI tools helped convert the story into a digital article, and an NBC DFW journalist edited it again before publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every Wednesday at 9:45 a.m., students sink into the pool at the South Arlington YMCA for a water…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":["post-452713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}