Never a Mermaid

One of the things I inherited from my mother was a pronounced fear of drowning. My earliest memories of the beach include her admonishment to stay close to shore for fear of the undertow.

There was never any real effort to teach me to swim when I was a small child, so I arrived at a pool party for a 10-year-old classmate in fear and trepidation. I had never before been in a pool. (I really did lead a sheltered life as a child.) I resolutely stayed in the 3-foot area and splashed appropriately, never revealing my inability to swim.

Someone must have suggested to my parents that I needed to learn how to swim, so they found me a swimming instructor – Mr. Herring. He was about 75 years old and had some form of palsy that made it difficult for him to speak clearly or move very well. I'm sure it was a bargain deal. He taught me to blow bubbles while I hummed. I never really learned how to swim.

As an adult I discovered that a snorkel and fins can compensate for a lot of inability in the water. I was comfortable doing laps at our health club with a constant depth of 4 feet, aided by those props. But deep water still conjured up intense fear in me. I most certainly would drown in water over my head.

Contrary to my mother's approach, I made sure my children could swim at an early age. They not only swam, but they also competed and brought home walls of ribbons and trophies. So the water fear was not genetic!

At some point, I decided to take a few lessons from one of their coaches in an effort to wean myself of the snorkel. Barry patiently worked with me to teach me to turn my head and breathe without gasping.

From time to time my children have tried to teach me to kick so that I could free myself from all swim props, but to no avail. So I am down to fins and the need to be near a wall if I am swimming over deep water. Or at least that was the situation the last time I swam laps, which was probably at least 5 years ago.

My friend Deborah asked me to go swim laps with her at her pool on July 4. I went and bought a new pair of goggles as my old ones no longer had a good seal. I'm already preparing my little speech about my water phobia.

People who are swimmers just don't have a clue as to how much fear deep water can engender. If I could change a few things in my life, coming to terms with water would be high on the list. I would like to think of swimming as enjoyable and relaxing, as well as aerobic. Maybe I will have to get serious about taking lessons. Maybe I can find someone who specializes in water wimps. Maybe I can be hypnotized out of this anti-water spell my mother cast on me so long ago.