Mall walkers rewarded with friends and fitness

Ask Bob Purfeerst if he makes New Year’s resolutions, you’ll get a short answer.

“Never,” scoffed Purfeerst. “Just live right and go see the great-grandkids,” the 75-year-old Lynnwood man said.

Margi Smith doesn’t make them, either. “I used to do that, but it’s what you do every day that counts,” said Smith, 53, of Lynnwood.

Bob Francis of Lynnwood is certain if he made a resolution he’d live to see it broken. Instead, the 84-year-old will keep at what he’s done for 15 years. “Exercise,” said Francis, who walks – with a cane – “every day I can.”

You could ask them all about good intentions for 2005, but first you’d have to catch them.

Purfeerst and the others were up early Thursday, as they are most days, briskly walking the long corridors of Alderwood mall. The mall in Lynnwood opens at 7:30 a.m. daily to give walkers a warm, dry and safe place for their morning constitutional. Except for coffee shops, most stores aren’t open until 10 a.m.

Nicole Bealey, assistant marketing director for mall owner General Growth Properties, said about 200 walkers, mostly seniors, come early to Alderwood. “Sometimes they come back in the afternoon for another lap,” she said.

Friendships have grown, extending to mall staff. “I’m getting married, and I got a card from the mall walkers,” Bealey said.

For 13 years, retired Stevens Hospital nurse Shim Larson has volunteered mornings at the mall doing blood-pressure screenings.

“It’s a great group; there are people in their 70s, 80s and 90s. They do it for their health and a commitment to being together,” Larson said.

After retirement from the Edmonds hospital in 1991, Larson, 75, missed people. Her husband died four years ago. “Many of the walkers have lost a husband or wife. They’re very supportive of each other.”

For parents of young children, the mall also has a Stroller Strides fitness class four mornings a week at 9 a.m. Alderwood plans to team up with the University of Washington’s UW Medicine on a new walking program later this year, Bealey said.

Everett Mall also has a free walking program, Friends-in-Fitness. Details are available at the mall information desk.

Not every walker shuns resolutions.

For 71-year-old Ben Hisoler, the goal for 2005 is to “keep healthy.” In a year of walking at Alderwood, the Everett man has lost weight and managed to control a blood-sugar problem.

“I used to get sick. Doing all this, I did not get sick last year,” said Hisoler, who works part-time as an accountant. Working and walking “keep my mind active, keep me upbeat and in shape.”

Al Rankin, 73, walks most days with his wife, Eloise, 66. The Lynnwood couple started the routine two years ago. “If you get moving, it helps you keep a positive attitude,” Al Rankin said.

At 70, Jack Hopkins walks every morning, then runs later in the day. “It keeps me young,” the Lynnwood man said.

“It’s important to do something for myself. I paint, I read many books, I travel. I’m going to Egypt,” said Hopkins, a substitute teacher who said he makes no formal resolutions. “I have to have structure in my life.”

Mother Jan Emory, 56, and 35-year-old son John Emory began walking after John had a heart transplant in 1999. He had suffered a congenital heart problem. “It’s our quality time,” said John Emory, whose wife, Jennifer, stays at home in Lynnwood to read the morning paper.

Marilyn Squibb, 74, has come from Everett to Alderwood five mornings a week since she retired as a human resources manager eight years ago.

“I love the people. When I first retired, I had an awful time. This saves my sanity,” she said. “Also, there’s heart disease in my family. I really believe age is a state of mind.”

Peggy and Jim Hobbs, both 81, have been mall walkers for years. Her resolution has nothing to do with physical fitness. “I’m planning to spend more time seeking God, more time in prayer,” Peggy Hobbs said. They also have projects to tackle at their Lynnwood home.

But their daily habit is here to stay.

“Three rounds of the mall,” Jim Hobbs said as the two trekked off to the Muzak tune of Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle.”

“It takes about an hour,” his wife said.

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