Still Making Waves at 100
Rose Scotland Shows Us How
By Estelle Rodis-Brown
Seeing is believing.
Rose Marra Scotland just announced her retirement at the age of 100. She has been an arthritis water fitness instructor for the past 20 years at Hillcrest Family YMCA in Lyndhurst. You got that right. Rose was certified to become an aquatics instructor at the age of 80.
Before she hung up her bathing suit, we sat in on her Twinges & Hinges class in the shallow end of the pool, where a co-ed group from every fitness level was put through nearly an hour of fitness exercises.
Her secret? There must be something in the water.
Rose’s ongoing story is marked by taking positive action to overcome obstacles; learning to float when life drags her down… literally. When she was 17, she nearly drowned in Lake Erie. The next day, she enrolled in swim lessons at the Downtown YMCA.
“I learned to get in the deep end. But I cannot submerge my face in the water. I get that old feeling of going down for the third time… that fear has never left me. I can swim as long as I can keep my face out of the water. I do love the water,” she says.
The daughter of Italian immigrants, Francisco and Alessandra Marra, Rose grew up in Murray Hill’s Little Italy neighborhood.
At the outbreak of World War I, her father enlisted in the military. While fighting in France, he was subjected to a poison gas attack; his mask leaked, badly damaging his lungs. He died at age 47, leaving Rose’s mom a widow with four young children. Rose was 8.
It was a foundational moment for Rose. Rather than becoming shattered by her dad’s death, she absorbed her mother’s can-do spirit. Alessandra did not speak English. Determined to overcome the language barrier, she took lessons from her own children and taught herself to speak and read the language of her adopted country.
“My mother was the nucleus of it all,” Rose says. “She held everything together.”
Opportunities
After graduating from Brush High School in 1943, Rose joined the Y and started taking various exercise classes. Her focus on acquatics became a lifelong pursuit. When she was 80, she was asked to replace an aquatics instructor who had fallen ill. But first, she had to swim 25 yards to earn the Arthritis Foundation aquatics certification.
“I whispered to the woman in line with me, ‘I can’t swim.’ The certification woman overheard me but didn’t let on. She fastened the flotation belt around me tight. She told me, ‘God gave you a gift. Never forget that.’
I had been thinking, ‘What am I doing here at 80 years old, competing against these 20-year-old swimmers? But when she told me that, my Italian spirit rose up in me and I said, ‘I’m going to do this.’”
So she did… her own way, with her face out of the water. For 20 years since then, Rose returns to the water twice a week, leading other folks with various fears, weaknesses and ailments to enter in and find healing.
Her students can’t help but be inspired by this effervescent woman who demonstrates the link between fitness and pragmatic self-determination. While leading them through a series of squats, she says exercise builds the leg strength needed to stand up from a low-profile toilet, for instance. “Help yourself,” Rose encourages the class. “Someone’s not going to be there for you 24/7.”
Rose lost hearing in her right ear and uses a hearing aid for her left, but not in the pool. She belts out instructions and encouragement, keeping eye contact with her students. “I never take my eyes off them. I eyeball my class constantly for stress and other feedback.”
Instead of seeing dead ends when life’s obstacles appear, Rose makes a practice of seeing possibilities. This is key in keeping a youthful mindset.
“I think I need to prove something for myself, that I can still think and do,” she explains. “God has been very good to me. I am still healthy, I have no big chronic issues. And I am of Italian descent, which I owe my longevity to — and I stand up straight when I say it — my heritage, my food; our Mediterranean diet plays a very big part.”
With age, little things can become big things: maintaining independence, living on your own terms. Rose maintains a firm grasp on those details of daily life.
A widow, she’s resided in the same Lyndhurst home for 71 years. In addition to her Y involvement, she stays busy cooking for herself, keeping up with most of the housework and reading.
Over the years, Rose has had to scale back on some things and release others entirely, mostly to appease her daughter, who worries about her. She reluctantly gave up driving at 96, but that didn’t get Rose down. “You always have to have another plan; a Plan B,” she says with a wink.
She gets around with the Senior Transportation Connection, an on-call bus service for older adults. As for household tasks, “I would still clean house by myself, but when I turned 100 last August, my daughter insisted that I get a housecleaner every two weeks to help me with changing my bed linens and doing the heavier cleaning.”
Rose adds, ”I also got one of these alert watches… my daughter made me. But I wouldn’t wear the kind that goes around the neck. I love to garden. But I can’t do it anymore. I was using a big trimmer to cut a bush, so that set off my alert bracelet. EMS showed up at my door. Uh-oh…”
Rose’s humor, grit, and respect for herself and others lift every potential downside.
“You have to love what you do. And I think I have always loved people. I am very friendly, and I have a lot of heart. I have a lot to give. It’s contagious.”
And Rose has goals: “I want to see what my seven great-grandchildren become. But if I lose this (my mind), I don’t want to live much longer. So far, so good. I don’t feel my age.”
Rose doesn’t look, feel or act her age, whatever that means; she’s redefining it.
Health Benefits of Aquatics
Water exercise provides a joint-friendly, full-body workout, improving cardiovascular health, muscular strength, flexibility and balance while reducing stress on the body.
The water’s buoyancy cushions joints and its resistance enhances strength, making workouts beneficial for people with arthritis, chronic illnesses, or those recovering from surgery. The gentle environment of the water is excellent for rehabilitation from injuries and can help decrease the risk of re-injury.
Aquatics are especially helpful for improving balance and reducing the risk of falls. Water allows for greater freedom of movement, making it easier to perform stretches and balance exercises that improve range of motion and stability.
Water-based activities can also raise heart rate, improve circulation and increase lung capacity, reducing the risk of heart disease and high blood pressure. It can also improve or help maintain bone health in post-menopausal women.
There are mental health benefits too, as movement in water promotes relaxation while improving mood, cognitive function and memory. Being in the water can decrease mental stress and anxiety. Water exercise also improves blood flow to the brain, enhancing cognitive functions and memory.
From head to toe, everyone can benefit from aquatics, regardless of age, fitness level or chronic condition.
Source: cdc.gov
