After her diagnosis in 2018, Marcia Stanley, 70, turned her passion for teaching swimming into a children's book.
Given my love of water, it's no surprise that my first symptom of Parkinson's disease happened in the pool. I was teaching a swim lesson and couldn't lift my arm. My doctor diagnosed me with frozen shoulder and recommended physical therapy, which didn't help. Soon afterward, my sister recommended a massage therapist, who did a maneuver called myofascial release. Almost immediately, it allowed me to lift my arm again.
During a follow-up visit with my doctor, he noticed that my left arm was shaking and asked if I had a history of Parkinson's disease in my family. I joked that the only people I knew who had the disease were Muhammad Ali and Michael J. Fox, and they were only acquaintances. I was then referred to a neurologist, who diagnosed me with Parkinson's disease and prescribed carbidopa-levodopa, which has eased my tremors. More recently, I've definitely been walking, talking, swimming, and eating more slowly.
Around the time of my diagnosis, I retired from teaching and decided to write a children's book about learning how to swim. Called Callum Takes Swimming Lessons, it's based on my experiences teaching Callum, the 7-year-old grandson of a friend of mine, to swim. In the book, Callum's teacher enlists the help of several “friends”—Fred the Fish, Oscar the Octopus, and Frances the Froggy—to make Callum more comfortable in the water. Together they teach Callum to float, kick, and paddle, put his head underwater, and synchronize his arms and legs. By the end, Callum can swim across the pool.
I've been teaching swimming since I was a teenager. I swam competitively in high school in West Los Angeles and offered private lessons every summer in our backyard pool. After graduating from San Diego State University with a degree in early education and social studies, I taught preschool at the same school where my younger sister was the principal. On the weekends and every summer, I continued to teach kids to swim. I eventually had a son, Ryan, who had no choice but to become a little fish.
Most days, I'm still in the pool and so grateful I have the energy and strength to swim laps and do water exercises, even if at a slower pace. I don't give lessons anymore, but every so often, if I see children who seem nervous around water, I can't resist asking their parents if I could offer a few swimming tips. Spending time with young kids in the pool keeps my spirit and attitude, well, buoyant.
—As told to Paul Wynn
