Most of us have a bucket list and just sometimes we stumble upon something which was never on this list until that one day, the day you realise this is a must for you.
And so we came across the beautiful story of a group of gogos during the monthly seniors stroll at Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve.
As you do when you stroll around, you start chatting and sharing stories and then one of the ladies mentioned something that was never on her bucket list … until that one day. The day she realised she also wants to enjoy the local pool.
So the group of grannies from Pimville in Soweto shared their story with the Southern COURIER.
Never in their wildest dreams, she thought they will be able to swim. Yet, at the age of 60 plus, they managed to get this under their belts and ticked off their bucket list.
Gugu Mkhwanazi, Sibongile Shoba, Lulu Thobejane, Thabile Mabaso and Lizzy Mojane passed the local pool in Soweto one day and realised how enjoyable the children found playing and swimming … and, needless to say, being able to swim was added to their bucket lists.
Gugu, the founder of the group said: “We are six pensioners in my street and all of us can’t swim but we attended lessons at the pool with the help of a very good instructor. I said from the beginning I am one day going to be one of the people in the pool enjoying it.”
She approached the swimming pool manager after passing and the rest is history.
During their first lesson, they were taught to float in a kiddies pool before they went over to the big pool, swimming with pool noodles.
Thabile Mabaso said: “Before we learnt to swim I would have never in my life thought about swimming. None of my parents could swim and I was always scared of water. Even when we went on holiday I only sat with my feet in the water never wanting to go in. Now I’m not afraid of water anymore and it’s all thanks to our wonderful instructor.”
Some of the ladies’ husbands now also want to join after seeing their wives swimming.
The group started with only a few members, but has grown to over 20 members that attended as the pool closed at the end of March for the winter season.
The next step for Gugu and her ladies will be to open a swimming club in Pimville to teach others to swim.
