Elaine Wolff lives by a saying from Abraham Lincoln: "It's not the years in your life, it's the life in your years."
That's the design of her 83 years, especially the last 15 years that she has lived with multiple sclerosis.
"Attitude and exercise goes a long way," she said. "It's how you feel and how you want to feel."
The MS diagnosis followed problems with her balance. Still, only she, her husband and the doctors knew at first. William Wolff, 85, chairman of Wolff Shoes in Fenton, and her husband of 62 years, stayed silent. She didn't want sympathy.
"I handled it so well, no one knew it, ever."
At first, doctors wanted her to relax and take life easier. She would have nothing of anything that would impede her traveling the world with her husband or around the country or volunteering with numerous service organizations in St. Louis.
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"Instead of going from doctor to doctor, I went from trainer to trainer," she laughed. "That's funny; now the MS publications (advocate) exercise and staying busy."
Dancing became one of her medicines of choice.
"I'd read that dancing was good for balance problems, and I loved dancing," she said.
Friends in the Palm Beach, Fla. area introduced her to Vincent Fazzi, a certified sports medicine trainer, life-performance coach and semiprofessional ballroom dancer in South Florida.
Fazzi wasn't surprised by Wolff's seemingly endless energy. Much of his work is with older people.
"Youth is a state of mind," Fazzi said, "a self-fulfilling prophecy.
"People hit 60, 70, 80, and they start acting like they think they're supposed to act."
But, "Elaine and William? In the last seven years, they've gotten younger."
Elaine Wolff got hooked on ballroom dancing.
She and Fazzi began to compete in South Florida ballroom competitions. They even created their own genre for competition, the "South Beach Tango."
They dance in Wolff's age category — he's 20 years younger — and they have won 17 events, known as heats, and placed second in two.
Today, "I don't take any MS medication, no special therapy," she said.
And back home in St. Louis, the couple have built a gym in their basement and they work out together five days a week with a trainer.
The trainer, Marcia Wever of St. Louis City Fitness, says older people can exercise successfully by staying within their abilities and not rushing.
"Everybody has a lot of unrealized potential, no matter what age you are," Wever said. It's harder to build muscle, but not impossible, she said.
Her oldest client is 91, she said.
"Keep mobile and stay functional, concentrate on balance and strength," Wever said. "You have to progress things slowly, constantly monitor joint pain and find exercises that suit you.
"It's like shopping for clothes. Some things fit and some things just won't fit."
Still, rather than persuading older people about health benefits of exercise, she tempts them with their quality of life.
"When you get to the point where you're 70 or 80, it's going places with your friends," Wever said. "Can you go with them? Can you walk that far? Can you get in the building?"
In the beginning, "Maybe you'll be able to stand up straight, not use your cane to go to the grocery store," she said. "And as they do it, they feel better and move better and they want more. Do it carefully, but do it."
Elaine Wolff is planning another trip to Florida to return to her dancing.
She sees no slowing down. As William Wolff travels to manufacturing and commercial locations, she still accompanies him and has a personal trainer waiting in each city for both of them.
"It's attitude," she said. "If you think of yourself as sick, you're sick. You can do what you want as long as you make up your mind to do it.
"These are supposed to be the golden years; they are if you make them golden."
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Jackie Hutcherson, STL Health Editor
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