Sometimes your life takes you in a direction that you never saw coming.
For one Oregon woman, she had her life planned out. She was going to raise her children and be a hairstylist.
A stay-at-home mom, Peggy Konzack said she never thought of doing anything else besides cutting hair.
But the 102-year-old has spent the past 50 years teaching local babies in her city of Roseburg how to swim – and has no plans on stopping.
I often said that I will keep teaching and swimming until they can wheel me in a wheelchair and dump me in the water,” Peggy joked.
Born in Los Angeles in 1921, she moved to Montana, and met her husband at a Seventh-Day Adventists youth camp.
Peggy Konzack and one of her students. Photo courtesy of Amber Gries
The couple moved to Roseburg in 1945. They were married for 79 years, before Peggy’s husband died at age 100 in 2021.
As the couple put down roots in their community, Peggy would spend time at the YMCA with her children. In 1968, a friend asked her to help her with a child. “I came here to the Y just to relax and swim and friends said, ‘How about taking my baby to the baby class?’ And I said, ‘Sure, I’ll be glad to,'” she recalled.
After a month of being in the class, she learned that the instructor was leaving. Without hesitation, Peggy said she offered to take over the class and hasn’t stopped since.
When another aquatic director told her she was “too old” for the training, Peggy refused to let him stop her. Steven Stanfield, CEO of the Douglas County YMCA, said Peggy went and got a teaching certificate for the new job.
“It’s just a joy in my life. I’m playing with them,” Peggy said. “I’m not working, I’m playing.”
Peggy Konzack . Photo courtesy of Amber Gries
Jennifer Reid, whose daughter, Lyla, is deaf, said that Peggy has made a huge difference in her daughter’s life.
“Peggy’s really great because she integrates a lot of gestures and simple signs,” Reid said. “And especially the one-on-one, getting one-on-one support, just the three of us, learning to swim has made all the difference.”
Peggy said the relationships with community members are her favorite part of the job. “The parents, and the babies, and the lifeguards who are standing there watching, and all of the people that I meet from day to-day,” she said.
Another benefit to her time at the YMCA, Peggy said, was it has kept her fit and healthy.
“At this age I can be very lazy, and this way I come over and do my swimming or teaching and I go home, and I feel good and I’m ready for the rest of the day,” she says.
It keeps me going.”
And at 102-years-old, she said she doesn’t plan to quit.
“I’m inspired to get up in the mornings, get ready. And I still drive my car and come to the Y and spend the morning,” she said.
“Sometimes I say, ‘Oh, it’s time to retire.’ And then someone will say, ‘No Peggy, keep going, keep going.’ So, here I am,” Peggy said.
For a look at Peggy and her YMCA pool babies, watch below.
