Richard’s Story: Putting Your Heart into What You Love
As he celebrates his 91st birthday, Richard is reluctant to offer life advice. But he does have one motto, about ice skating, that comes close. “I just keep going around as long as my legs will hold out,” says Richard, a retired lawyer and lifelong skater.
As Richard lives with a cardiac stent and a diagnosis of congestive heart failure, his commitment to getting out on the ice every week offers a great blueprint for the cardiac rehabilitation journey. Find a powerful individual goal. Stay active doing something you love and find relaxing. And do it in community, to add accountability and sustain your commitment.
A Stent, a Diagnosis, and a Rehab Plan
Richard, and his wife Sheila, have been longtime members of the Burke Fitness Center, working out regularly and doing outpatient physical therapy over the years for various sports-related injuries.
Just before Thanksgiving 2024, he ended up in the emergency room at White Plains Hospital with fluid in his lungs. Doctors withdrew fluid, performed an angiogram, and placed a stent in his left anterior descending (LAD) artery. He was diagnosed with congestive heart failure.
After discharge, he had a visiting nurse and some physical therapy at home, followed by enrollment in the Outpatient Cardiac Rehab Program at Burke. The program offers supervised exercise and education from an interdisciplinary team to help participants regain strength and endurance, and reduce stress on the heart, following a cardiac event or new cardiac diagnosis.
The program’s 36 sessions are guided by the participant’s individual rehabilitation goals. And for Richard, that was always clear. He wanted to get back to skating.
Nine Decades on the Ice
Since he was a young boy, Richard was a skater—first hockey skates, then speed skates, which he still does every week and finds deeply relaxing. One morning at the rink, about 15 years ago, he noticed a figure skater, Jackie, who was wearing a Cornell skating jacket—his alma mater (he is class of 1956, she, 2006). He told her he had a pair of figure skates “gathering dust in my basement,” and she encouraged him to put them on and give ice dancing a try. Now, they practice once a week, and he’s learned about half a dozen basic dances. “It’s dancing, it’s a lovely feeling,” he says.
Returning to his pre-diagnosis activities—skating, exercise, travel—was not negotiable for Richard. The team at Burke understood this. They started slowly and built up his capacity incrementally until he spent twelve minutes on each of three machines at the highest levels by the time he graduated.
Staying Active and Pursuing Passions
Richard’s commitment to skating exemplifies a key principle of successful cardiac rehabilitation: regular physical activity is much easier to sustain when it’s something you genuinely love. For Richard, skating isn’t just exercise—it’s joy, relaxation and identity.
When he returned to the ice after completing the cardiac rehab program, Jackie had one condition: “Don’t you die on the ice with me!” Richard laughs at the memory. They got right back to dancing.
As he tells it, skating with Jackie makes him feel young. The 50-year age gap matters less than the shared passion for gliding across ice, mastering steps, moving to music.
The Power of Community
Richard’s skating life offers another rehabilitation advantage: community connection, which research shows is good for mental health and can help you keep your commitment to physical activity.
On Sunday mornings at Ebersole rink in White Plains, Richard is part of a longtime skating community, although it’s dwindled somewhat over the years as members have aged or moved on. People are invariably amazed when they learn his age. “How can you possibly be skating like you are at 90?” they ask. Richard doesn’t have a ready answer—he just keeps showing up.
He formed relationships with the Burke team, too, who carefully monitored his progress and made sure he was advancing safely. While in the program, he’d talk with the physiologists and other team members about his skating, showing them articles from the local paper about his ice dancing. Their genuine interest and encouragement helped fuel his recovery.
Richard’s dedication is inspiring for anyone facing cardiac rehabilitation or the challenges of aging. Find something you love. Show up for it regularly. Connect with others who share that passion. And, as he says, keep going around as long as your legs—and heart, and head—will hold out.
