SHELBY — Gaylene DeVito recently celebrated her 97th birthday with a small splash.
DeVito, a lifelong Shelby resident, dived into the YMCA of North Central Ohio – Shelby branch swimming pool Feb. 7, receiving a roar of cheers and applause.
The tradition began seven years ago, on DeVito’s 90th birthday, when she approached a lifeguard to discuss a burning desire.
“I went up (to the lifeguard) and I said, ‘I’ve wanted to dive off that board,’ and she says, ‘Well do it,'” DeVito said.
Those three words of encouragement, along with a hand from the lifeguard, have inspired an annual tradition DeVito doesn’t take for granted.
(Below is a video of DeVito diving into the Shelby YMCA swimming pool on her 97th birthday. Credit: Julie DeVito Butler)
A lifelong love for the water
Sally Houk, DeVito’s daughter, said her mother grew up at the pool.
DeVito, an only child, could frequently be found at Shelby’s Seltzer Pool while her mother was at work, Houk said.
“Mom was at the pool all the time and was a beautiful diver,” she said.
DeVito’s favorite dive to perform from the board was the jack knife, a dive where the diver bends in midair while keeping their legs straight, then straightens out before plunging into the water.
“That was my dive. That’s what I loved to do,” she said.
No second was spared sunbathing or lounging around the poolside when DeVito and her six friends were at Seltzer.
She said they were always too busy in the water.
As she aged, the pool always stuck with DeVito, who said she tried to make her way to the water daily after retirement.
“I’d go in the morning and swim, but I hadn’t been diving for years,” she said.
A trip down memory lane
As DeVito sat at her dining room table, she flipped through a book full of mementos and pieces of history — a museum of her childhood.
She revealed season pass tickets for Seltzer Pool, preserved behind clear, protective page covers.
A certification card signifying DeVito had completed an instructional course in life saving and water safety was found in the pages which followed.
“I would have to take that (course) every summer,” she said. “Because you couldn’t go in the pool if you didn’t take it in the morning, before the pool opened.”
As she revisited other childhood memories, DeVito said there’s nowhere else she would’ve chosen to spend her life.
“I think Shelby is one of the best towns, to grow up in, that ever was,” she said.
Family has ‘always been athletic’
DeVito’s passion for the pool never limited her from participating in a variety of other activities.
Throughout the years, she’s golfed, bowled and continues to go for daily walks around the Grand Boulevard with Houk and their dog Halle.
Her late husband, Salvatore DeVito, was a standout football player for the Shelby Whippets in the 1940s and was an honorable-mention All-Ohio pick his junior year.
“I’ve got all the articles from when he played,” DeVito said. “They said he was the spark plug of the team.”
Her grandnephew, Brayden DeVito, has brought back memories of watching Salvatore play.
Now in the second half of his sophomore year, Brayden has successfully led Shelby’s football program to two playoff victories in two seasons as quarterback.
While listening to Brayden give a radio interview, DeVito said she could hear the resemblence.
“It was just like I could hear my husband,” she said, “because he was so fast. He was a passer. He threw all the passes.”
DeVito’s dedication has made all the difference
Houk said the pool, being an “extension” of her mother’s life, has helped significantly with the aging process.
“She was so dedicated to going to the pool and swimming,” Houk said. “She still exercises there now. She’s so used to it she doesn’t think it’s anything.”
Over the years, DeVito has continued to exercise her mind as well.
She enjoys reading and playing word-based puzzle games on her iPad. “Wordscapes” and Wordle rank amongst her favorites.
Houk said continued physical and mental exercise has allowed her mother to continue doing things she enjoys.
“I think that’s what’s made a lot of difference in her life, because too many people don’t,” she said.
As far as diving for her 98th birthday, DeVito said she has no plans to do it again.
“I’ve said that every year,” she said. “But I mean it this time, because my vision is really getting bad.”
If this was her last birthday diving from the board, DeVito said the experience has “just been fun.”
“Diving was it for me,” she said. “I loved it.”