Swimming saved his life: Iowa high school coach, 91, beats COVID
DES MOINES, Iowa – It's early on a June day as Tom Cady sits in the living room of his home. He's waiting for his first lesson of the day, and you can tell he's ready by how he's dressed: Iowa shorts and Hawkeyes swimming shirt.
He's a 91-year-old swimming instructor who has taught the skill to Des Moines metro children since his teens. Most of those lessons came in the pool at his home. Very little has stopped him from his life's mission. He can recall only three stretches when he's been away from teaching swimming.
The first two came during his time in the Marine Corps in high school. The third was last summer — when Cady feared he would die from COVID-19.
Cady had gotten through one session of lessons before the end of June, when he became ill. He came down with pneumonia. Doctors discovered 90% percent of his lungs were covered in mucus caused by COVID-19.
Cady was aware of the risks COVID-19 poses for his age group. Compared to a 5- to 17-year-old, the chance of dying from the disease for someone at Cady's age is 8,700 times greater, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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"He said, 'I remember laying there and thinking I'm going to die,'" his daughter, Dawn John, recalls.
It never came to that, and Cady, who has spent much of his life in pools, may have the water to thank. His lifetime in swimming strengthened his lungs and helped him survive, his doctors told him. And his desire to get back in the water helped propel him out of the hospital after less than a month, his doctors believe, a shorter stay than they expected.
It also got him home in time to see his wife, Betty, before she died.
Cady at home in the water
When Cady was 15, he got a job working as a lifeguard at Birdland Pool in Des Moines. He also worked at Ashworth Swimming Pool. Before Birdland opened each day, Cady taught swim lessons with the other lifeguards. Cady became one of the most respected lifeguards for his heroism that first summer when a mother couldn't find her son at the pool. Cady and another lifeguard searched the pool and did surface dives in the deep end.
Eventually, Cady discovered the boy floating upside down. Cady grabbed him, pulled him out of the water and started giving him CPR. The boy lived, thanks in part to Cady's quick action.
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“I got my picture in the paper,” Cady said. “I was the youngest lifeguard in town.”
Cady worked at the pool until he entered the Marines. But even then, the water kept calling him. He solidified himself as a strong swimmer in his platoon and helped with swim tests. When he got stationed in Long Beach, California, Cady’s job was to help guard the prisoner ward of the hospital. During breaks, Cady passed the time swimming in a pool. He eventually started managing it.
When Cady’s time in the military ended, he returned to Iowa and stayed in the water. He became a legend on the high school swim decks — a Hall of Fame coach for the Lincoln High School swim teams off and on from 1967 to 1999. He also worked as an official at high school swim meets.
"There's a couple of names in Des Moines that most families and most coaches know, and he's one of them," Lincoln swimming coach Brayton Weber said.
Cady cheered for all swimmers — those on his teams and those racing against his teams.
Odds are, if you were a swimmer in Des Moines, he coached you at some point. Weber said Cady would sometimes pull swimmers to the side after a race and offer them advice. Shari Walling, a retired swim coach at Johnston Community School District, said Cady would do the same thing at middle school meets he worked.
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Cady spent so much time helping kids, the meets would go on an hour longer than expected.
"He cares about everyone and everything," Walling said.
He began teaching swimming more seriously after his family built a pool in their backyard.
Over the years, his four daughters helped as well. But in 1989, when Cady retired from teaching, he hopped in the pool and started giving lessons, too. Kids would come and go all day, getting lessons from Cady and his family.
"We were teaching from like 7:30 a.m. or 8 o'clock in the morning until 8 o'clock at night," said John, his daughter. "So, it was like a 12-hour business."
Cady enjoyed every second of it.
He coached all types of swimmers, from beginners to competitive. Kids and adults got lessons. He's also given private lessons to people with disabilities. Cady helped Boy Scouts with merit badges and taught lifesaving to others. The goal, Cady said, is to help kids learn to be safe around the water.
He estimates he's given up to 200 kids lessons each summer. He knows of 28 former swimmers who have gone on to coach as well. Cady has been doing it for so long that he's had up to three generations of family members pay for lessons in his pool. They're appreciative of the small numbers in each class so that Cady can focus on each child. And he's got a playful approach to teaching that helps make children feel comfortable in the water.
"We think like kids," Cady said.
John said that for years, her father would tell her this was going to be his last year. A local television crew even did a story on Cady's plans to retire after the summer of 2019. But Cady kept coming back to the pool and kept teaching kids how to swim.
The water may have saved Cady
The summer of 2020, even in the pandemic, was going like it usually did.
Cady had welcomed swimmers into his backyard for lessons Monday through Friday. But then Cady began having pain as he breathed. When he went to the hospital, doctors discovered the pneumonia, and Cady had to cancel the remainder of his lessons.
"I missed it last summer," he said.
Because of the pandemic, Cady was secluded from his family when he was in the hospital. He spent his 90th birthday there, celebrating by eating pizza. The moment is captured with a picture on his phone. It's good he has the photo because he doesn't remember most of his stay. Doctors and nurses were so busy that John had trouble getting updates on her dad.
One of the few things Cady remembers is a conversation with a doctor who saw his X-rays and was astounded by the strength of his lungs. He asked Cady what he did for a living. Cady explained his work in the pool. The doctor told him it probably saved his life.
Cady was discharged on July 26, 2020. He hustled home to be with his wife, who had dementia and had been in hospice care.
He was there to hold her hand and say goodbye. She died later that day.
"Her nurses said she waited 'till I got home," Cady said.
Back in the pool
Cady stands to the side of his pool on a sunny June day and calls on 4-year-old Henry Hoffman to swim over to him. Henry begins kicking and takes off in the water for Cady.
In a few seconds, the boy makes it over to him.
“Didn’t that feel good?” Cady asks Henry.
Henry smiles. These moments are the reason Cady has dedicated his life to this. After the past year, it's what keeps him going. When he's not walking around the deck, Cady is in the water with the kids.
It's a lot of work for him to continue. He spends about an hour every day getting the pool ready by cleaning the cover, taking it off and clearing the pool of debris.
Cady insists this will be his final summer of teaching, but he's said that before.
His joy in being around the pool and the kids remains as obvious as ever. Cady, who turns 92 next month, jumps in feet first. He still books all his lessons.
"He's a good swim teacher," said 7-year-old Harrison Hoffman, Henry's older brother.
When he does finish in the pool, his legacy will live on. Weber started the "Tom Cady Award" over a decade ago at Lincoln. It's given to a swimmer on the boys' and girls' teams who shows the most dedication to the sport.
Cady appreciates the gesture. But his biggest satisfaction comes from knowing he's helped make kids safer when they jump in a pool, go fishing on the lake or ride in a boat.
"It's been very rewarding for me," Cady said.
Follow Tommy Birch on Twitter: @TommyBirch.