Mastering a Matter of Balance

Beverly is an active participant at NSC events. In the first half of 2019, she graduated from both the Aging Mastery Core Program and the Matter of Balance class. She does all of this without a car. She has the RideKC bus schedule figured out like a dispatcher, and gets everywhere she wants to go.

In July of 2019, she was waiting at the bus stop. She knew of a walking trail close by, so naturally she went for a walk. The trail had a lot of pine needles on it, and the first thing she knew…..she was “skating” down the hill on pine needles. As she picked up speed, she looked for something to grab ahold
of, but nothing was available! She kept her balance for quite a while, but eventually fell and rolled to the bottom of the hill. All the while, she was thinking about what she had learned in her Matter of Balance class.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a young man running to help her. As he approached, and she was lying on the ground…the first words out of her mouth were “Don’t touch me! Just let me see if I’m all right.” She gave herself a few minutes to assess how her body felt, and then she actually rolled onto her side, used her arms to push herself up onto hands and knees, and then got up on her own. The young man was amazed, as it turns out he had seen her entire trip down the hill.

Beverly attributes her good fortune, despite having a fall, to the Matter of Balance program. She said the class taught her steps to take in the event of a fall, and the confidence to accurately assess what she needed to do. This experience has taught her new awareness of just how slippery dry pine needles can be!