Dorothy Williams

Gentle Fitness & Mobility

Age 73 · Retired registered nurse, certified yoga instructor, and gentle movement advocate

I was raised in a small town outside of Nashville, Tennessee, where my grandmother started every morning with a long stretch on the back porch and lived to be 97. I didn't understand until I was much older that she was practicing something. After nursing school I worked in hospital settings for 35 years — orthopedics, then geriatrics — and watched up close how dramatically movement, or its absence, shapes aging. When I retired I became a certified yoga instructor and now teach three gentle movement classes a week for people who arrive convinced they can't do it. Everyone can do some version of it. That's the whole lesson. I live in Asheville, North Carolina, with my husband and an exceptionally calm cat named Biscuit. I hike on weekends, cook elaborate vegetarian dinners, and recently started learning to play the dulcimer. I write for every person who's ever said 'I'm too old for that' and meant something much gentler than they realized.