Inbox Surprise
Notes from the Prairie: I Wonder column #44
Francesca Fisher
Checking my inbox this morning, I find an email from a stranger named Francesca. Under her signature she identifies herself as “gray ponytail girl.” Her email says, “I loved reading your Geri-Fit article! Thank you for writing it!!”*
I received a similar email yesterday from a stranger named Nancy, who wrote, “I'm sitting in bed, chuckling over your column ‘Flunking Geri-fit Class.’ I'm looking forward to reading your upcoming book. Thanks for offering your first two chapters!” I immediately sent Nancy a link to the opening pages of “A World in a Grain of Sand.”
I was grateful Nancy reminded me of my promise. I wrote that article six weeks ago and almost forgot promising the book-sample freebie.
When I receive Francesca’s email today, I conclude she is also emailing to receive the free book chapters. I immediately send her the link to the same PDF.
She responds without mentioning the link. “Can I ask, out of curiosity, what is your age?”
She adds, “I have a client in class here in Tucson who has a similar story, an avid walker who did not lift weights at any time in her life. She is hooked now on squats and lunges, as it has turned back the clock 10 years for her, reigniting abilities she had given up on.”
I wonder why Francesca asks my age, but don’t ask her about that. I decide to simply answer her question. I add I love her anecdote and will file it away for possible use in a book on aging. I also wonder how she found “Flunking Geri-Fit” from Tucson, since she isn’t one of my Substack subscribers and doesn’t live in Iowa where several newspapers carry the column. I do ask her that.
She says she requested Google send her a notice of every Geri-Fit reference it finds, and today Google notified her of the recent appearance of that term in the online version of the “Ottumwa Courier.” She adds, “Honestly, strength training is the fountain of youth. Only 10 percent of our nation's older adult population works out with weights.”
Now I wonder about her background and expertise. Not every woman can instantly cite a statistic about the percentage of older adults who lift weights. I ask. She responds she gives presentations on that topic and attaches her presentation, “Geri-Fit at the Library.”
On the third slide her photo and credentials appear. I gasp at the photo.
Francesca is the woman who has been guiding my class through Geri-Fit by video for the past two months. The emailer with the gray ponytail is the face of Geri-Fit.
I inquire if she is simply Geri-Fit’s exercise coach or if she is also its owner and developer.
When I receive her response, I suspect she has been grinning while keystroking it. She says, “I am ‘the everything!’”
Our correspondence turns to business. She sends me a survey to fill out after I complete three months of Geri-Fit classes. I ask her if I may interview her about senior fitness for my planned book. She consents.
I look again at her photo, and this time I read her credentials. Yup. The words were right in front of me, but I was too astounded by her photo to read them. She is owner and developer of Geri-Fit, currently offered at 400 locations around the country.
I berate myself for not recognizing her identity sooner. Her name appears briefly at the beginning of each video, but at that moment I am taking out my weights and stretch band, not watching the credits. I don’t tune in until Francesca appears, looking fit and regal even in a ponytail.
Somewhere in our correspondence, Francesca has also graciously told me, “I've shared it [the article] with a lot of people, and they all think it is hilarious as everyone has gone through the ‘day-after-class toilet scenario.’ I'm like you, two days after the workout ... that's when I feel it the most.”
Maybe she feels a twinge two days later, a tiny one.
However, I’m sure Francesca Fisher, the “everything” of Geri-Fit with her elegant bearing and lush ponytail, never, ever, not once, has an iota of trouble rising from any toilet on earth.
But then again, after two months of Geri-Fit, neither do I.
* Click here to read “Flunking Geri-Fit Class.”
Carol Van Klompenburg is a writer living in Pella, Iowa. She is currently at work on a second book about aging. She can be emailed at carolvk13@gmail.com. Her website is carolvanklompenburg.com.