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This 84-Year-Old Is Redefining the Typical Hobby for Senior Citizens
Meet 84-year-old Betty Goedhart, a senior citizen deifying the odds of gravity.
Four times a week, Goedhart travels to Escondido in San Diego to fly on a trapeze. Goedhart always had an urge to try it out as a kid, but never got around to it.
“She does have the best attitude of anyone who comes out here to fly,” Dave Ayers, owner of Trapeze High, said to NBC San Diego.
Goedhart made her first trapeze run at the age of 78 and has continued her hobby of flying for the past six years. While her age may turn some heads for the activity at hand, Goedhart shares that “she feels the same as she did 20 years ago.”
“I don’t believe it, but when I write it down, I see it,” she said to NBC San Diego.
Goedhart grew up with an athletic lifestyle, as she was a professional ice skater for a good portion of her life. She has also dabbled in skydiving and rock climbing, learning to embrace heights in her old age.
“I don’t know if it’s a secret, but it’s what I say,” Goedhart said to NBC San Diego. “Keep active.”
Although many people are quick to criticize Goedhart and her upside lifestyle, she hopes her hobby will inspire others to get out there and try something new.
“I think they’re wrong and I just hope that maybe I could change some people’s mind about that,” she said to NBC San Diego. “And maybe someone will look at this and say, if she can do it, so can I.”
Goedhart is already doing her part and encouraging others who visit Trapeze High.
“All of the people who come here that meet Betty, when they leave they say, ‘I want to be like Betty,'” Ayers said to NBC San Diego. “I understand, we don’t all have the genetics that she was blessed with and the energy she has at 84. The part that we can emulate is her good attitude.”
Goedhart knows she cannot do this forever, so right now she is just living in the moment.
“I say to myself, I know I can’t do this forever,” she said to NBC San Diego. “So, I really better enjoy it today. And that’s kind of how I live my life. I really have come to enjoy every day.”
Your Daily Dish reached out to Betty Goedhart for a comment.
