At any age, learning to swim presents an exciting opportunity for personal growth and resilience, especially when overcoming challenges or traumatic experiences.
Twenty years ago, Lusana and her husband were vacationing near a lake when Lusana decided to go swimming. She took two steps into the lake and immediately was in over her head in water, unable to come back up. Lusana started to panic and take on a lot of water and was starting to drown. Lusana screamed for help, but no one around heard her. Her husband finally turned around and saw her struggling, then jumped in to save her.
Ten years later, Lusana and her husband moved. Their new house has a pool with an eight-foot deep end. For years, Lusana was scared of the deep water and would not go near the pool. Joyce, Lusana’s daughter, became scared of the pool herself from seeing her mother’s fear, and refused to go in. Lusana knew that she and Joyce both had to overcome their fears of the water in order to become more comfortable at home. Lusana looked for a program that offered deep water swimming, to best prepare her and Joyce for their home pool, which led her to our Y.
Lusana and Joyce started swimming at the South Shore YMCA Emilson branch in April of 2023. Both of them are enrolled in swim lessons. “I started taking swim lessons with Emily in April, and it’s been lifechanging,” said Lusana, “Emily taught me how to swim with confidence and work through my fear of water.”
Lusana has advanced to our Adult Intermediate lessons, and Joyce is in our Youth 4 lessons. Lusana has sights on learning how to save someone in need of assistance in a pool, and Joyce is training to join our Strypers swim team. “With Emily’s help and instructions, I'm not afraid of swimming anymore and I’m not afraid of the deep end of the pool,” said “Lusana. “Thank you to professionals like Emily, and everyone at the Y who teach us with so much love and dedication.”
