Ms Markham has decided to move to the Albury area to be closer to her family and the decision to leave Narooma and the coast after all these years was a very difficult one.

In addition to her aqua-fitness and Ageing with Attitude low-impact, land-based fitness classes held twice weekly at the Narooma pool, she has also worked at the Narooma Visitor Information Centre for the past 21 years.

“I’ve loved every minute of it and loved the people so much,” Ms Markham said. “It’s been so humbling and rewarding because this is such a friendly community that I feel blessed to have lived and worked here for so long. I’ve shed many tears since deciding to leave.”

Participants in her fitness classes such as Jenny Halliday of Bermagui will miss her terribly. Mrs Halliday joined her aquaerobics class only a couple of years after it started back in 1993.

“Absolutely, we will miss her,” Mrs Halliday said. “She is so lovely and such a lovely teacher giving us something different every time. She keeps us moving.”

Relative newcomer to her fitness classes is Heather May of Narooma, who enjoys doing both her land and water-based regimes.

“I’ve only been coming for a year for her aquaerobics class but I took to it like a duck takes to water,” Ms May said. “Now I am doing the land aerobics too and she has changed my life. I am so much more healthier and it's all thanks to Kerry’s motivation and her wonderful spirit.”

An example of this spirit was when the Narooma pool closed for renovations recently, Mrs Markham took her whole aqua-fitness class down to the swimming enclosure on Bar Beach where the participants joined the local seals for their weekly watery exercise.

Kerry Markham and her family moved to Dignam’s Creek in 1978, around the time of the birth of her son, but a drought not long after forced them into Narooma town where she has lived ever since.

In the early 1980s, aerobics and fitness classes were very much a new thing to Australians and she recalls how an American woman Mary Croucher first brought high-impact fitness classes to town, à la Jane Fonda, leotards and all.

These classes were offered to the community at the Narooma High School auditorium and local GP Jenny Wray was also involved until Kerry took over 35 years ago.

In the years after, she was based at the Narooma Surf Lifesaving Club and the style of fitness classes evolved to become more low impact and suitable for the elderly.

“I introduced step aerobics that we called ‘Kezastep’ and later ‘Kidz Fitness” classes and even ‘Aerobox’ classes,” she said. “I’ve worked with physios doing rehab and getting their clients in the water. I also teach general low-impact fitness at IRT Dalmeny.”

In about 1993, she started offering aqua-fitness classes at the Narooma pool, and she believes these were the first of their kind in the Eurobodalla Shire. She also offered water-based fitness classes at the Cobargo pool attended by many Bermagui residents.

Her fitness students are hosting a special farewell lunch for Kerry at Club Narooma on Friday, June 30 starting at 11.30am with some video from her classes. Anyway who participated in her fitness classes or worked with her at the visitor centre over the years, is encouraged to attend. 

The Narooma pool will also be closed on Friday, June 30 for the official hand-over from current operators the YMCA to the new owners Community Aquatics. Click here for more

Mrs Markham has been able to get local area fitness instructor Gary Hart to take over her “Ageing with Attitude” land-based fitness classes at the Narooma pool, while she is hopeful the new management of the Narooma pool will continue to offer aquaerobics fitness classes. Local instructor Nancy Casu also continues her fitness classes. 

Meanwhile she is looking forward to her move to Albury where her daughter and brother live and where she has already bought a house with a saltwater pool, to soften the move away from the coast.

“I will be back to visit all my friends and to go for a swim in the sea that I will miss dearly,” she said.