True grit

I marveled today, watching Diana Nyad wading out of the ocean after swimming 103 miles from Cuba to Key West in a little under 54 hours.  She's 64, the same as I am, and this was her fifth attempt in 35 years. Through swollen, sun-burned lips, she said she had three things to say: one, never, ever give up; two, you're never too old to chase your dreams; and three, it looks like a solitary sport, but it's a team.

Watching her, I started mentally comparing her to my friend Janice Allen, who is also 64 (well, almost- she'll be 64 on November 23rd).  Janice doesn't swim the Florida straits like Diana Nyad, but she DOES regularly hike from the Dillard Road here in Highlands, up to her condo at VZ Top and back down again in 45 minutes.  It's only about 3 miles round trip, but the elevation rises from 3600 feet to 4200 feet, and it's a steep climb.

My first memory of Janice - she was Janice Wisenbaker then - was when we were in the 2nd grade at Sallas-Mahone.  She looked like a little doll, with blond hair and big blue eyes, but what I REALLY remember was this sweater she had.  It was all pink and fluffy and I coveted it something awful.

In 2009, the year before I was diagnosed with lymphoma, Janice was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and like mine, her prognosis at the time looked pretty scary. But 1949 must have been a good year for tough women, because here we are now in 2013, and Diana is conquering oceans and Janice is scaling tall mountains (but with bells hooked to her belt to ward off the bears), and I'm ...hanging in there.

Janice's (and Reuben's) portrait by Fay Bridges Hyatt