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Staying fit and active as we age brings many benefits, not just for our health, but also to stay connected with friends, family, and community.
Four senior residents, Bev and Murray Billington, Erica Kretseschmar and Averil Lovegrove, tell their stories on the value and wisdom of staying active and the different activities they have been involved with to achieve this.
Fighting fit – tennis duo push through illness
Keen tennis players for most of their lives, Bev and Murray Billington have used the sport to overcome serious illness.
Now well into their 70s, they are still formidable opponents, although they have recently swapped tennis rackets for pickleball rackets.
Along with the obvious social benefits of belonging to a club, they say there are real health benefits to staying active after illness, with good fitness levels enabling you to do more.
One of Beverley’s earliest memories is at the Maungaturoto Tennis Club as a two-year-old. Her mother was a keen tennis player and played until she was 89.
Bev Vercoe, as she was then, also loved the game, and proved to be exceptionally good at it.
She was a regular in what was the Benson & Hedges tournament at Stanley Street, now known as the ASB Classic. She won the New Zealand women’s singles title in 1969 and she also played much of the year overseas, including in the doubles competition at Wimbledon. She regularly rubbed shoulders with the likes of Billie Jean King, Evonne Goolagong Cawley and Margaret Court.
But asthma forced her out of competitive tennis in her mid-20s, although she returned to club tennis in her 30s.
Murray Billington had been a regular player since he was 14, including through the 20 years he taught at Rodney College, and was Tennis New Zealand seniors president for four years.
While their paths first crossed at a tournament when Murray was 16 and Bev 11, they met properly 40 years later at the Warkworth Tennis Club.
By then, Murray was a teacher and a widower. Bev suddenly had an instant family in Murray’s four children and eight grandchildren.
As seniors, Bev and Murray played around the world but serious illness struck them both. Bev ended up in a coma for three days after falling ill while playing for New Zealand in a world event in Perth. Six years later, in 2014, at 67 she had a couple of mini-strokes. This initially saw her only able to take a few steps at a time. But with Murray’s help, Bev pushed herself a little further each day and got co-ordinated at hitting a ball again.
Murray already had two artificial knees but he was knocked for six when he picked up a virus that damaged his heart. On medication, he too pushed himself to walk a little further each day to regain his strength.
This spirit saw them take out the 60+ World Masters tennis competition in Auckland in 2017, when Bev was 69 and Murray 74 – up against players who were in some cases more than 10 years younger.
These days the pair play pickleball – a gentler form of tennis that is becoming popular worldwide.
“It only lasts half an hour,” says Murray. “It doesn’t feel like you’re exercising and is a lot of fun.”
A life of dance
Keeping fit has been a life-long habit for Erica Kretschmar says.
Now aged 85, she hits the gym twice a week and encourages others to keep good levels of fitness.
“It’s good for your brain and makes you get up and go and do things,” she says.
Personal trainer Dave Loader has developed a programme to strengthen muscles and overcome some issues she was having after a double hip replacement. The way she moves during training sessions at Snap Fitness Gym in Warkworth hints at her past.
Erica may have had a career in personnel recruitment, but dance has always been her passion.
Twelve years of training as a youngster saw her teaching ballet at 19.
But the elegance of ballet soon gave way to the speed and coordination of ballroom dancing as Erica soon moved up through the skill grades to a silver medal.
With a marriage breakup and a young child to bring up, dancing had to take a back seat. There was no financial support from the government for single parents back then, Erica says, and some tough years followed.
But she missed dancing and eventually found herself back on the dance floor in her late 50s, getting her gold medal levels at 58.
Eight years later, she moved out of the city and onto a small lifestyle property in the rural village of Kaipara Flats, getting involved with a ceroc dancing group for a couple of years. Then it was a Scottish country dancing group at the Ranfurly Hall down the road, which suited her partner Keith better as he had “two left feet”, she says. When that stopped, Erica walked.
Erica had fallen in love with the Argentine Tango but needed a partner. Keith wasn’t up to the level of skill needed for it so she decided to get her fitness up again and go on a South American odyssey and learn the dance properly in Argentina. However, then Covid came along.
While she still enjoys the gym sessions, Erica recognises her dreams of Argentina are likely over.
Living the good life
At 94 years of age, Averil Lovegrove has lived the good life at Leigh for 60 years.
Most days she walks for about an hour and regularly goes along to tai chi at the Leigh Hall. The walking has kept her fit and healthy, she says, and the gentle martial art of tai chi has kept her limber. With 108 different moves you have to know off by heart, Averil reckons it has also kept her mind in good shape too.
Always prone to putting on extra weight easily, this was exacerbated back in 1975 when she and her husband Gordon volunteered in Fiji for a couple of years with Volunteers Abroad.
She found she gained quite a bit of weight from the food eaten there.
So she was pleased, after she got back to Leigh, when a neighbour suggested she start walking regularly with her. The weight came off, and she’s stayed fit and healthy from walking ever since.
Averil and Gordon moved from Kumeu, where Gordon had worked as a panel beater. An allergy to the metal ended that trade and saw them looking for a simpler life. Gordon’s family were keen boaties and after buying a boat, living on the edge of the Hauraki Gulf at Leigh offered them a wonderful lifestyle, Averil says.
Always good with figures, Averil did the books for the dairy company at Matakana before finding a job closer to home at the Leigh Post Office, eventually becoming the postmaster.
After buying a sheep paddock overlooking Mathesons Bay, they turned it into a wilderness garden.
Living in a shed on site while they built their own home, the shed then became home to their son Lindsay and his wife Trisha, while they also built a home on the land.
Being frugal, including staying in backpackers hostels, saw them able to indulge their love of travelling, including a trip to Cape Horn, the southernmost tip of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago in Chile.
After Gordon died 16 years ago, Averil kept up her fitness with daily hour long walks to Matheson’s Bay and a few years ago also started tai chi in Warkworth.
Still driving, the short haul into Leigh is easier and these days she sticks closer to home. She swims regularly and is a stalwart of the annual mid-winter swim at Mathesons Bay which happens later this month.
Leigh has a very strong community, Averil says, and staying active means she is able to stay a part of it.
