102-year-old woman’s wish to go swimming granted

Monday, December 27, 2021

As reported by News 3 Now/Channel 3000

All 102-year-old Elizabeth “Betty” Roberts has wanted to do is hop into a pool and go swimming.

“Betty, for I’d say over the last year has been begging to get into a pool every day,” Michelle Kryshak from Agrace Hospice Care in Fitchburg said. “She has contacted her doctor, her nurse practitioner, and they just thought it was too big of a risk, and she said this is what I want to do, she honestly talks about it every single day.”

Thanks to Agrace, Roberts’ wish came true on Wednesday when she got into the water in the pool at the Capitol Lakes retirement community in downtown Madison. The pool has safety railing and a ramp for easy access.

“It’s a little different than it was when I was 20, but it was nice to get in,” she said.

As she tells it, she’s no stranger to the pool.

“I swam in the Badger State Games,” she said. “It wasn’t unusual for there not to be anybody else in my age group, so I would get… medals because there was nobody else in my age group,” she said.

She summed up the experience this way: “It was easy to swim and it wasn’t cold.”