DANCING has been Edna Sheppard’s passion since she was a girl … perhaps because she is a child of the 1920s.
Even though Australia fell into deep recession after World War I, her passion led to her being dubbed Victoria’s “best physical culture child” at the age of 10 for her callisthenics performances.
Sheppard (pictured) married her teenage sweetheart during World War II when he came home on leave.
Before that he had helped out with recovering bodies of shipmates who died when HMAS Kuttabul took the brunt of a Japanese midget submarine attack in 1942 in Sydney Harbour, an attack meant for an American warship docked alongside.
Her husband died six years ago, but before that he had always accompanied Sheppard at the Broadmeadows Leisure Centre, where she is one of the fittest participants in Hume council’s active ageing program.
She takes classes such as Zumba and tai chi up to eight times a week and works out on “the machines”.
“I don’t come on Thursdays, though,” the 91-year-old confesses. “Thursdays is line dancing at Glenroy … and there’s ballroom dancing on Monday nights at the RSL, with the old-time dances, the waltz and three-step, and the like. It’s the only night I go out.”
The mother of two, grandmother of four and great-grandmother of eight does not look like taking a step backwards any time soon, unless it’s part of a dance move.
“Every day is a bonus, no matter what age you are,” she says.
