Like a queen in her water court, at the heart of the action at the MLK pool in the Bayview, Chadwick, gets her students swimming.
“So finally, one day, I went to the Stonestown Y to check it out, and I liked the vibe. I bought my first swimsuit. First, I just held on at the edge and moved my legs back and forth. I got a little deeper, and let my leg hang, and then I noticed a release in my back. No pain. Hmmmm. I dried off, went home, pain returned, but later that day I went back again. I began going three times daily, just moving myself in the water, and I got better. The water saved me.
Linda, wearing a neat shower cap to keep her hair dry, adds, “I might be the oldest one here. Don’t ask. A friend got me off the couch to come. Now, I never miss it.” She attended City College of San Francisco for several years, and then eloped to Reno, Nevada, to marry Gregory Charles Morgan. She was 24.
Eventually, she went back to work for a mortgage company. Her marriage ended in 2013, and she helped care for her parents until the end of their lives. Her dad died in 2000 and her mom in 2022.