
These posts are supposed to highlight what our members’ lives are all about outside the gym, but Bomb has played an integral role in Alisa’s life recently, so I’m just going to go with it. Plus, this is my column, so I’m allowed to break the rules when I feel like it :o)
Alisa is one of Bomb’s first members - from back in the day when a busy class had six people in it. SIX! It didn’t take long for her to start feeling a sense of community, but she didn’t know at the time just how much that community would impact her life.
When Bomb first opened, Alisa was at a turning point in her life. She was in the midst of a challenging separation from her husband of 20 years, and her niece McKenna, who was five at the time, had been diagnosed with a brain tumour (thankfully McKenna is now 11 and doing well). After two years of turmoil, Alisa was ready to reinvent herself and Bomb became the unexpected springboard into a new life. The friends she made were her support network. And the gym was her mental, emotional, physical and social outlet. In fact, whenever Alisa considers selling her home – which is fairly often - she ultimately decides not to because she can’t bear the idea of leaving her Bomb family.
Today, Alisa is thriving. She’s a successful Psychometrist, which in short means she assesses kids with traumatic brain injuries, developmental delays and learning exceptionalities. She helps her sister organize the Windsor Brain Tumour Walk, and she’s getting ready to send her daughter Kaitlyn off to University next year. At the same time, she’s continuing to discover new interests and community connections that anchor her life in East York and we are sure to keep seeing her lovely smile at the gym for many years to come.
Sally