She just would not let it rest -How my mother taught me the skill of swimming

I was about 3 years when i had a near drowning incident at a swimming pool. I was told by my mother that i lent another child my floater while i was in the pool even though i was on the shallow end of the pool. This was not a children’s pool and so i was still too short and my feet could not touch the base of the pool. Fast forward, i was the only child in my family who could not swim.

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The life saver – Johnson was a nice man and encouraging but i still failed to learn no matter the amount of support i received. Some how, i was not allowed to drop the subject of swimming so i had to go to the swimming pool and hold the poles. i did this for many years.

I used to see smaller’ tuduntus’ – I have not better way of describing these babies that mastered swimming go past me but I WAS AFRAID. I was afraid of drowning yes but i was too afraid of learning with every one’s eyes on me or so i thought. I was moved into sharing this on my blog after reading Lutgard Musiime’s blog ( //lutgardmusiime.com/20-facts-about-me/) that listed 20 facts about her and her number 17 fact says ” She is afraid of swimming”

My mother at this point knew i would not learn with the eyes watching and so she devised this plan to get me to the swimming pool during off peak hours. So our usual drill was go to church for 11.00 am service and then go to the pool after 1.00pm. She changed it by ensuring we got to the swimming pool before 11.00am because no one was at the pool side at the time. ( Brilliant idea)

I remember her beckoning to me,” Joanne, swim, try, come to me.” I had developed trust issues over time because, the life saver – Johnson had a way of changing position after convincing me to leave the rail. My mother never gave up on me. We did this for many months. I still hear her voice as she often said, ” Joanne, do you trust me?” Ofcourse i did trust her but …….

Finally, after several attempts to swim towards her and i realized she wouldn’t change her position in her pool, i was able to leave the rail and swim to her. She only changed position with my permission. My trust in her grew stronger with each visit to the pool.

You may be tempted to think that i did not have other siblings with me. I did but that adjustment of time at the pool was made so that i could learn how to swim and my mother dedicated those Sunday mornings to me. Besides, my siblings already knew how to swim and took advantage of more space in the pool to extend their boundaries even further and try new tricks in the pool.

I finally learnt how to swim, to the deep end at least. I never ever competed in swimming but my mother did give me an honorary trophy just so i would have one on the shelf of trophies.

And that marks the end of my story.