Niagara Falls’ first lady of aquatics laments children can’t go to the pool
McCabe taught water safety to generations of swimmers at YMCA and Royal Life Saving Society
Lois McCabe’s thoughts today are filled with memories of swimming as she celebrates the latest milestone in her life.
Just how much of her life was devoted to swimming, Mrs. M, Niagara Falls’ first lady of aquatics, is asked on the eve of her 90th birthday.
“Oh, about 90 of 90 years,” she said with a hearty laugh.
“I’m joking. I would say 75 per cent of my time.”
McCabe, a 2015 inductee to the Niagara Falls Sports Wall of Fame, was aquatic director at Niagara Falls Family YMCA for 30 years, as well as 10 years as Royal Life Saving Society water safety chair.
In 1971, she assisted in launching an emergency boat patrol unit on Chippawa Creek that saved five people from drowning that summer alone.
“I did swimming all my life. Taught swimming, helped people,” McCabe said in an interview Wednesday from Queenston Place Retirement Residence in Niagara Falls, her home for the past three years.
She thinks it’s too bad COVID-19 is keeping public pools closed and denying people an opportunity to beat the heat.
She especially feels bad how the closures are affecting youth.
“It’s not the children’s fault. They should be able to get to a pool,” McCabe said.
“You can’t do much about it.” Public pools in Niagara Falls were never closed for an extended period during her tenure as aquatic director.
“No, never,” she recalled. McCabe, who raised five sons and one daughter, said she wouldn’t want to trade places with parents who have to tell their children why they can’t go swimming.
“It’s very difficult to explain to a young one, who is wanting to be in a pool, why they can’t. If the parents tell them why, they’ll look at them like they have a knot in their head,” she said with a chuckle.
“What can we do about it? Nothing. We just have to wait, be patient and dump them in the bathtub.”
In addition to teaching her children to swim, McCabe taught them all about water safety. “They were all perfect swimmers. I taught them all and their friends, too. We had a good time all the time in the summer outdoors.
“They would bring their friends to the house, and we would go out to the pool and have a good dunk,” she added.
McCabe, speaking from the experience of someone who was “in the water quite a bit,” called swimming the perfect sport for getting the body moving and keeping it moving.
“It makes the body move. You have to get yourself wiggling,” she said with a chuckle. “If you don’t, you’re going to get the sunshine on your head, and you’re not going to like it.”
McCabe, who has 13 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren, became known in Niagara Falls for more than her 30-plus years teaching swimming at the Y and her duties at the former Cyanamid outdoor swimming complex.
Her “labour of love” every July 1 was a Highway of Heroes backyard fence display along the former Canada Day parade route along Morrison Street to Optimist Park.
Her display paid tribute to Canadians who made the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan.
McCabe’s community involvement over the years included volunteering with Canadian Red Cross Society, Boy Scouts of Canada, Meals on Wheels Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake, as well as First Baptist Church of Niagara Falls.
She received a Paul Harris Fellowship Award from the Rotary Club in 2015.
But Mrs. M is best known for swimming, and she is more than fine with that.
“I was in the water quite a bit,” she agreed in an understatement.
Ross McCabe, who was her husband for 52 years, died in 2002.