Anne Simm, Ziplining Senior Seeking Excitement

Every decade or so, Anne Simm wants to experience a new thrill.

Last time, it was free-fall parachuting.

This summer, over the Labour Day weekend in Muskoka, Simm went ziplining, for the first time ever, at Horseshoe Valley. That was so much fun, she decided to try tubing in Little Lake while being towed behind her son’s cabin cruiser.

“Lovely fun,” she said, as she smoothed her short, wavy white hair fluffed from the wind.

Simm turned 90 in May.

If you ever need evidence that 90 is the 50, Anne Simm is it.

Born in Trafalgar, Ontario, Simm was a few months old when Ontario held its prohibition referendum. She moved to England with her family when she was 12, and has lived there ever since — except for the winters she spends, on her own, in Lanzarote, the easternmost of the Canary Islands, just 125 km off the coast of Africa. Malta is another destination she likes to frequent.

Widowed 20 years ago, Simm lives in a mobile home on an estate in England through spring, summer and early fall and travels to visit her son’s family in Toronto.

This was the first summer of boating for John and Paula Simm and their boys, who came to Canada a couple of years ago.

Of course, Anne Simm had to get into boating and tubing, too, even if she had just a bit of bother getting in and out of the triple-seat inflatable towable she shared with her grandson on the half-hour ride.

Simm came to Severn Marina prepared for her adventure, wearing underneath her sundress a pretty one-piece blue flowered bathing suit that showed off her firm legs and trim figure.

Her son explained that she’d had her legs bronzed to get ready for her trip here, knowing that she’d be showing them off.

Anne Simm’s slight hearing deficit is her most notable sign of aging. She remains totally and fiercely independent — except for needing a hand or two to get in and out of the inflatable.

And she remains game for anything in her old age, proof that slowing down is not the only option, not when the thrill of speeding through the air or the water still beckons.