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"For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a hope and a future."
— Jeremiah 29:11

Dreams Come True

Linda Perkins is a resident at Eaglewood Village. She has MS and is wheelchair bound, but that does not keep her from getting around.

Linda started swimming at very early age. She was taught to swim by the Red Cross. Two older sisters and one older brother were also very good swimmers and were on the swim teams as well. At Age 3, her parents knew she was a natural. She joined Silver Lakes Swim Team. In her first competition at Overbook Swim Club she won 1st place at Age 4. She was an accomplished swimmer at Age 6.

She later joined the YMCA and set a YMCA record for 29 seconds for 50 m crawl. She competed all over Ohio in swim meets. She placed 8th in state when she was 12 or 13 years old. She actually broke a record for the butterfly in an earlier heet, but later took 8th in that state meet. She swam the butterfly, crawl, breaststroke and the individual medley, which were the backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke and the crawl

Linda's dream was to swim again.

This dream has taken a few months to fulfill. Swimming pools are easy to find. Swimming pools with handicapped lifts are not. But we found one - at Urbana Physical Therapy. We called them and they were glad to help out. (That's Jackie Merrill and Lisa James in the pool with Linda.) Then we contacted the Salvation Army to help with transportation.

Our thanks to the Salvation Army, Chris Cotter (owner of Urbana Physical Therapy), Jackie & Lisa and the staff at Eaglewood Village for helping us fulfill Linda's dream. And thank you to Nancy Lacey for submitting it.

Lest we forget, Happy Anniversary to Linda's parents, Hazel and Dewey Bruney. They will be celebrating 61 years together on November 1, 2008.