90-Year-Old Figure Skater Will Warm Your Heart with Her Amazing Talent | Short Film Showcase
It's easier to skate than walk because you push it. We push with one foot and you stand on the other one. You don't have to keep moving your feet all the time. But yeah, skating is it. Well, it's just fun.
My name is Yvonne Yvonne Marie Broder's Talan. I was born July 5th, 1925. Is that right? 7-5-25. I'm now 90, and I've been skating as long as I've had a pair of skates. My father worked for AT&T, yeah, old-fashioned American telephone telegraph company. Then they transferred him to Denver, where we have stayed forever. He was working so hard and he was so dedicated. The doctor told him he had to have some recreation, so the family went to Evergreen and the lake. We would go up and you could skate outside.
My youth was great. It once was the time that somebody would come up, "We'll try this." Well, okay, we'll try that. Oh, oh yeah, that was pretty good. "Try this." Well, that was okay. Then, "Well, jump." Oh, well okay, well gee, I didn't like that. I fell down. [Laughter] After a little while, I became good enough, and I was able to skate in competitions and one thing another. I met some people who were in a show in Dallas, so I went down and I tried out for it. I was the right height and the right size, and I was one of ten. I was one of the girls in the show, and I don't remember what, but we all did something, and we got paid. But I loved being in the show, and I enjoyed what we did. I enjoyed it the whole time I was there for many years.
[Music] [Music] You [Music] Life just seemed to go on, you know. Things happen to me. I was sick; I was better. I got married; I had children. Your life, I don't know. I guess some people can direct their lives, but I kind of just let mine happen.
[Music] Well, a couple of years ago, I was downstairs, and I was trying to pour myself a cup of coffee. I poured the coffee, and I couldn't drink it. I went upstairs and I said, "Sherry, I... I was trying to say I can't, I can't drink my coffee. I can't, I can't, my mouth won't work." And so she looked at me and she said, "Get dressed, we're going to the hospital. You're having a stroke."
They kept me in the hospital for a couple of days, and then I went to a recovery sort of thing. Whenever you have something that interrupts your regular living, it's so easy to say, "Oh, I could do this once. I could do this. I could do this." And no, I can't now, but I will try. And so I've been working at it, and it takes a while. It takes a long time, and maybe I'm just not as good as I was. Probably not, because I could do a lot of things when I was better and younger. Of course, I think age has something to do with it too.
But I like going to the rink, and I like skating. At any time I can go to the rink, I go. I try and go at least five days a week, and I skate quite a bit. I'd like to be skating for as long as I can skate. Somebody said, "Well now, how can you skate so well? You tipple when you walk." Well, I do tipple when I walk, but I don't have edges on my shoes. I have edges on my skates. Getting on my skates, so I don't fall down very much. I haven't fallen that many times lately.
[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] What you do with your life and what you find enjoyable with your life is up to you, and I think it's wonderful if you can follow things that you like to do in your life. I like waking up in the morning because I know I have another day.
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