Esther Williams's Wishes

In honor of the late, great Esther Williams, I thought I'd re-post one of my favorite posts from 2009 from the October 1946 issue of Photoplay about wishes.

"I'd wish to be reincarnated as a fish. Then I'd have a legitimate excuse for spending all my time in the water. I guess the only reasonable facsimile of that wish would be to have a huge swimming pool right outside my bedroom door, so that every morning I could climb out of bed, plunge into the water, and swim to my heart's content with nothing to interrupt me - weather or engagements or work or friends."

"I seem to have been born with an innate love of water, starting when I was two years old, I used to cry when my mother would take me out of the bathtub. I think I learned to swim even before I learned to walk. In high school I used to do my homework in the bathtub during the winter. Unless I spend part of the day in the water, I suffer a slight drying of the skin."

"I have everything I want except my dream pool where I could spend several hours a day just making like a fish."

I can just imagine Esther swimming laps in the big swimming pool in the sky.  I think part of the reason I adore her is I find swimming so freeing, too.  It is one of the rare activities I feel light and free - almost like a normal person must feel.  We will miss our Mermaid and I wish her family my thoughts and prayers.