By WINTER JOHNSON Special to the Daily Press
Annie Mahoney never realized how well she’d been living her life until she got sick.
Now 81 years old and stricken with pancreatic cancer, she finds herself surrounded by people who care about her — friendships she forged simply by adhering to the golden rule.
Mahoney has been a senior fitness counselor at the Santa Monica Family YMCA for the past 16 years.
A Santa Monica resident since 1948, Mahoney has inspired many senior citizens to stay active and lead a physically challenging life, said her colleague Pam Allison.
Born in 1924 in East St. Louis, Ill., Mahoney characterizes her childhood life as “nomadic.” Her mother died when she was 14 months old. Raised by her father until age 13, she was often left alone in cars while he played cards and gambled at the race track. His habits led to frequent moves throughout the country.
“Today they would call that child abuse, but in my day they called that survival,” said Mahoney with a laugh. “That was love to me. You never knew where you would end up if the state took you.”
Mahoney’s father died when she was 13. She was raised by a foster family in Lawrence, Mass., where she met her future husband, Carl. Their marriage led to Mahoney’s many adventures and her subsequent move to the West Coast.
Mahoney’s jobs were not always on the physical fitness track. She has held multiple positions, including working for Bell Aircraft president E.C. Ewing, running five Santa Monica bars simultaneously, flying over waters looking for schools of fish, and landscape design. Her husband’s death after 15 years of marriage and her subsequent alcoholism led to a change of pace and her interest in physical fitness.
Though she is stricken with pancreatic cancer and residing at the Seaport 17th Care Center, her relationship with the YMCA family has not ceased. Clients and colleagues are constantly bringing her everything from water to tuna melts from Fromin’s, a local deli on Wilshire Boulevard.
The Daily Press caught up with Mahoney at Seaport 17th to discuss her YMCA family, physical fitness and her life in Santa Monica.
What did you do before the YMCA? “Before I was married, I was a ‘Rosie the Riveter’ during the Second World War. I worked for Bell Aircraft in Niagara Falls, N.Y. I went there when I graduated from high school in 1943. I was working on a fuselage on an airplane, and wasn’t doing things quite properly, so they pulled me off the assembly line and I ended up as a private secretary to E.C. Ewing, who was president of Bell Aircraft at the time. At 18 years of age, that was quite a stint. I worked there until after the war ended, and then I went back home, met my husband and got married. After we got married, I went down to Florida on my own and worked in a plant while my husband was doing pre-law in Boston. He came out here (Los Angeles) to get settled, and then I came out here after him by train, which was very interesting. He went to LMU law school, and then decided that he did-n’t want to become a lawyer. I said, ‘Well, I guess we’ll just be in the bar business.’ He was working as a bar boy on the weekends at the time. We were so successful that we had five bars when we were 32 years old. I knew how to make the money, and he knew how to spend it properly. During the summer when he was out of school, we always went into some kind of business. One summer we went into the roofing business and traveled way up to Eureka, Calif. We did roofing and siding. After my husband passed in 1960, I worked at the Bob Burns Restaurant for 20 years, the Seafood BroiIer for 10 years and the Greek Out for five years. I came to the YMCA in 1989. I’ve worked all my life.”
What prompted you to go from the restaurant/bar industry into fitness?
“I was getting older. I was about 69, and I just wanted to do it. I got books on fitness, and read a lot of stuff on nutrition. However, I’ve always had a sensitive internal problem. That’s my vulnerable part — my esophagus and stomach, but I managed to work around it and not let it stop me from what I wanted to do. I also dated a bodybuilder for a while. That was really the first time that I encountered physical fitness. I just decided that I wanted to be healthy. And then in January of this year, I got sick. It happened over the course of a week or so, and I went into the hospital. I don’t want pity, but I do want people not to forget me.”
Tell me about your experience at the YMCA.
“After I came out of alcoholism rehabilitation at St. John’s Hospital, I started volunteering at the Y in 1989. They started training and teaching me, and I went on paid staff in 1995. I was a trainer up in the weight room and a teacher for aqua aerobics, high-and low-impact aerobics and therapeutic stretch. Whatever they needed. I didn’t realize how good a teacher I was until I got sick. I thought I was struggling to get it together, but it turns out I had it together and didn’t know it. The people at the Y are wonderful. I have made many, many friends, and my friends have not abandoned me. Hardly a day goes by when I don’t get a visitor from the Y. If any of my friends hear this, bring me food. Bring me tuna melts. Bring me spaghetti, bring me food that I can eat, and make sure it’s soft. Nothing in chunks.”
Do you have good relationships with your clients?
“Yes. I formed what I would call an entourage of women. I don’t have a family or children so I made a tribe, a family of my own. It was a group of ladies from the YMCA, and I started to have them over to my house. I am what you call a gourmet soul-food cook, which means cholesterol heaven. I would cook dishes like turkey cacciatore and chicken a la king. I would always have these ladies over a couple of weeks before Christmas, I said, ‘No gifts. This is my gift to you for being friends.’ They were such a wonderful group of ladies. I had no idea about them, because when you work with people at the Y, I call it working with people naked. When they walk in, you have no idea who people are. When they come in, they come in dressed to work out. They’re not wearing their jewelry. They don’t have their entourage with them. They’re just people. They may be very affluent, but really are hard-working women like me. (She laughs.) To this day, they come and see me, and give me things. I got to know the women really well. I’m a Gemini and very inquisitive. I’m not academically educated, but I’m people wise.”
What is your philosophy on life? “I never thought I was smart enough to have a philosophy. It just comes down to being good to people. To have friends, you have to be a friend to people. Be a listener, listen to what people say. Have a heart. I didn’t realize how good a friend I was. I guess I was a good friend, with the way people do things for me now without reservation. Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you. It’s that simple. It’s a very simple philosophy. I can’t add anything to it.”
What motivates you? “Right now, I am in a position where it’s hard to get motivated. But when I was working, it was pride and helping people.
I love helping people.”
You’ve lived in Santa Monica for a long time. Would you say Santa Monica has changed for the good or for the bad?
“A lot of it has changed for the bad. The monstrosities they’re building and the ugly buildings they are putting up — they don’t want to keep anything architecturally safe from destruction. So much of our heritage is being destroyed. It’s become a money town. It’s always been rich, but now it’s rich in a different way. At least they’re building the (Madison theater at SMC). I always hoped I would live to see something there. Another thing I don’t like is the Christmas decorations we have. They’re very plastic.”
What do you like about Santa Monica? “I like the fact you can ride around on your bicycle, and it’s relatively safe. I like our thrift shops. Our schools are nice — I went to Santa Monica College for a little bit and took theater arts there for one semester. I also took English literature. I thought if I took enough classes, they would give me an honorary degree, but that’s not going to happen.”
What piece of advice would you give to a senior wanting to be healthy?
“Do what you can. I don’t care if it’s one foot in front of the other, or sitting in a chair, but move. Move.”
What surprises you about the people that you work with?
“I have to relate back to listening. Seniors don’t listen. You can repeat and repeat, and they will still come up to you asking questions. They don’t focus, but that’s OK. I just tell them to open their ears.”
What would you tell someone who’s young?
“Go for it. Whatever you have going around in your mind that you want to do, and if you have the ability to do it, then you should. As long as it’s sensible, just do it. Don’t wait. Just dive in. You can always come back. So why not? The opportunities are out there.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 27, 2005. Read the original PDF.