Page 17 of The Old Gals’ Bucket List

SANDRA

Sandra was surprised at how much she enjoyed the swimming lessons.

It helped that Tess was patient and inspiring and that the other members of the swimming class were all friendly and up for a laugh.

Every week they happily posed for photos for Sandra and Patti’s Old Gals’ Bucket List Instagram page, coming to the lessons in colourful costumes with over-the-top accessories such as swimming hats with big plastic daisies on them and fun swimming goggles.

Madge even wore a bright pink flamingo rubber ring and Beryl donned a Victorian swimming costume which she’d bought from eBay.

Then the two men, Bill and Sid, got in on the act and turned up in one piece bathing suits and snorkels.

Tess took it all in good spirits and allowed Sandra and Patti to take photos before the swimming lesson started.

It made for some good material for their Insta feed, which now had quite a following, with people sharing that they had started swimming lessons too, and or were intending too, and thanking the two women for inspiring them.

Kali was having swimming lessons at school, so was eager to ask Sandra how she was getting on.

It was a topic of conversation every time they had Sunday lunch together and even Don had started showing an interest. Over in Australia, Becky and her family were following the page in amusement and Honey often sent Sandra photos of unusual swimming costumes or floats that she could wear for her next lesson.

Sandra enjoyed these fun exchanges with her.

Many other members of the swimming class had started a bucket list themselves.

Sid a keen cyclist, wanted to cycle around the coast of England and was already training for the trip, Bill had decided to learn to play the guitar, Madge had started a class for flower arranging – something she’d wanted to do for ages – and Beryl had taken up yoga and proudly showed them all in the canteen after their lesson how she could now balance on one leg.

Everyone applauded even though she lost her balance and ended up clutching onto Madge for support, almost pulling her over in the process.

Because everyone had bonded so well, they all encouraged each other along and two of the group had already learnt to swim a few strokes.

Tess had told them that the breaststroke was the easiest to learn – as the least tiring stroke and one that keeps your head out of the water – so that’s what they all started with.

Sandra found her confidence growing and finally, after a few weeks of lessons, she let go of the bar and swam her first strokes.

‘You’ve done it! Well done!’ Patti clapped enthusiastically as Sandra lowered her legs to the floor and took a few deep breaths, elation flooding through her. She had done it. She’d finally done it! She’d let go of the bar as her swimming instructor had told her, both literally and metaphorically.

‘Well done, Sandra,’ Tess shouted and Sandra’s face flushed with pride as they all cheered.

‘That’s another one off the bucket list,’ Patti told her. ‘Now you have to do it again so I can video you for our Instagram page. I’ll go and get my phone.’

‘I’ll do it, I’ve got my phone with me.’ Tess took her phone out of her pocket and held it up. ‘Ready, Sandra?’

Sandra swam again – she managed a couple more strokes this time – and Tess filmed it, then sent the video to Patti’s phone.

A little later in the café, Patti took a photo of the group, all raising their cups and grinning, and posted that on Instagram along with the video that Tess had taken and the caption:

Celebrating! Sandra swam today! What will be ticked off the bucket list next?

Sandra felt proud as she watched the video. Who would have thought that she’d finally learnt to swim at seventy-one!

‘You should do something to celebrate,’ Tess said.

Sandra nodded. ‘I will. I’m going to have my ears pierced.’ She’d noticed that a local beauty store had a walk-in ear-piercing service.

‘That’s a great way to mark the occasion,’ Tess told her.

‘And then we’ll celebrate with a cocktail!’ Patti said.

Which is exactly what they did.