Remembering friends
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By BETH ZUMWALT
Submitted photo
Sara Wyatt, left and Jason Cox, try out the new bench at King Park Pool in the swimming area. The bench, donated by Cox’s grandmother, Susan, was painted and refurbished by Cox, Wyatt’s mother, Rose Sanderson, is one of the ‘ladies of the pool, to whom the bench is dedicated.
The ladies who take advantage of the adult swim at the King Park Pool, have a solidarity. They exercise in the water during the summer months and meet for lunch monthly in the summer months.
But the group has took a loss the last 12 months.
First, Kathy Smith, a founding member of the pool, who came nearly every day to the 11-1 sessions, died unexpectedly.
After Smith’s death in November, Rose Sanderson also died after a fall down some stairs. She was also at the pool daily, sometimes even going to both the 6 a.m. to 8 a.m.sessions as well as the 11a.m. to 1 p.m.
This year, the pool had been open only a few weeks, when the group received word of the death of Sandy Henry, also a regular at the 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. sessions.
“I just thought we should do something,” Susan Cox, who spearheaded the project. “I found a bench on Facebook Marketplace and when I told the seller for what I wanted it, they donated the bench.”
The bench needed some sprucing up and Cox asked her grandson, Jason, to help.
“He took the whole thing apart and got all the rust off of it,” Cox said. ‘Then he painted it and put it back together.”
A plaque attached to the back of the bench, names the three ladies who are missed by their pool friends.
The bench was placed last week, on a day when Sanderson’s daughter, Sarah Wyatt,
was at the pool.
Wyatt and the rest of her family were expected to gather to view the bench together.
