First Posted: 3/10/2015
Eighty-seven years old.
Did I read that correctly?
Yep, that’s what the story in The Lima News said last week. It noted an 87-year-old woman is the oldest member of a group of senior citizens who play pickleball every Tuesday and Thursday morning.
But as it turns out, she’s not quite 87.
“I won’t be 87 until May,” said Donna Cassell, of Lima, after being tracked down later in the week. “You’re not going to put my age in the newspaper, are you? I don’t know if I want everyone knowing how old I am.”
Not only do we want to tell everybody, Donna, we’d like to give it a big splash.
“Oh, good grief,” she said.
But after some cajoling and a day to think about it, she relented. We’re glad she did because you don’t come across stories like hers every day.
As it turns out, she’s been “playing ball,” as she likes to call it, since 1997.
“That’s when a group of us started playing volleyball at the Senior Center, although we moved to the Bradfield Center about 12 years ago because we kept hitting the ceiling at the Senior Center, damaging the tile,” she said.
“I still play volleyball on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, it’s pickleball. I also line dance on Thursdays.”
That gives her the weekends to recuperate and rest.
Not really.
“That’s when I catch up on those house projects that didn’t get done during the week. I always have some project going on … painting, remodeling or yard work.”
(Did I mention she’s nearly 87 years old!)
Nothing seems to slow her down, not even the bad burns she suffered during an outdoor accident in 1987 or that ugly “C” word — cancer, which she was diagnosed with years later.
“The kids say I must have nine lives, but you just have to keep moving forward,” she said.
Mrs. Cassell has always worked hard and played hard. She was one of nine children growing up on a farm near Shiloh in central Ohio. They all had chores to do Mondays through Saturdays, but Sundays were their day of rest — “only we played ball from dawn to dusk.”
She and the love of her life, Hobart, her late husband of 62 years, raised five children: Sandy, Judy, Connie, Patty and John. They all enjoyed the outdoors, canoeing and hiking in the summer, spring and fall, and skiing during the winter.
For 22 years, Mrs. Cassell worked as a real estate agent, “a job I thoroughly loved.”
She’s thankful for her health.
“I feel so good right now,” she said. “There’s no reason to slow down until I absolutely have to.”
Not at her age. Not at a young 87 to be.
ROSES AND THORNS: The rose garden welcomes neighbors who look out for neighbors.
Rose: A neighbor called Lima police after noticing two teens trying to break into a West High Street home. The would-be thieves weren’t in the house for more than two minutes when officers arrived and arrested them.
Rose: To Joel Baker, a 1997 graduate of Lima Central Catholic High School. In his three years as the girls basketball coach at Division I Teays Valley High School in Ashville, he’s compiled records of 15-9, 19-4 and 18-7; has won 27 straight games in the Mid-State Buckeye League, including two league championships; and twice has been named coach of the year.
Rose: To members of the SODC Elite Dance Infusion, under the direction of Shifawn Youngpeter. They performed in Cleveland before the Cavaliers game against Oklahoma City on Jan. 25.
Rose: It could slip above 60 degrees today for the first time this year, says the National Weather Service. That’s helping us forget those 22 straight days from Feb. 9 to March 2 when temperatures in Lima never climbed above the freezing mark.
Thorn: To Anthony Hutchins. The former star athlete and hall of fame member for Lima Central Catholic was sentenced to 30 days in jail for selling drugs.
Thorn: To the teenagers who pelted a man with snowballs as he walked down Franklin Street in Lima, then got really cruel and chucked bricks at him.
PARTING SHOT: There was a time when $1,000 was the down payment on a car. Now it’s the sales tax.
