Last January, Joseph and his wife, Sue, moved to Thorndale, PA. Joseph suffers from labile blood pressure, meaning his blood pressure could jump to dangerously high levels or drop to dangerously low levels at any moment. It causes him to fall … a lot. It was after one of those falls that his three sons insisted he moved closer to one of them. Joseph takes seven medications for blood pressure. In addition, he and his wife both have diabetes and, since retiring, as his doctor put it, he’s “rounded out quite a bit.”

“It was harder than you can believe to leave the house we lived in for 33 years,” Joseph says. “And we left several very near and dear friends.”

A Big Change

After sitting around the house for a couple of weeks following the move to PA, Joseph joined the Brandywine YMCA. “I had to do something,” he recalls. “Just sitting around the apartment was not going to work!”

He began doing water aerobics five days mornings a week, and was amazed at all the wonderful people he met quickly. “I really look forward to my daily routine. I get up at 8 am, go to the Y to work out in the pool and see friends I have met since coming here,” says Joseph. Today, 10 months since joining, Joseph has lost about 30 pounds and has a new goal of dropping to under 200 pounds, the weight he carried for most of his life, before retiring from his profession as an elementary school principal. 

Enjoying the Good Life

“I’m healthy and happy now,” he says with a big grin. “And the best news is I haven’t fallen at all since moving here! I love the Brandywine Y. It is so friendly, so nice. They host monthly lunches for us retired folks and I’ve met a lot of people there.” His next goal, other than getting his weight down a little more, is “to get into the deep water workout,” Joseph says.

But there may be something else in store. He has a passion for drama and performing, and he recently discovered that the Jennersville YMCA has a strong theatre program. AS a member of the YMCA of Greater Brandywine, he has access to the Association’s seven YMCA branches, including Jennersville. So, maybe we should keep our eyes open to catch him in a future performance. Stay tuned!