Meet Deidre Ferrell, Crunch Flatbush Member Extraordinaire
Back in December, we shared some advice about New Year’s resolutions from Crunch Flatbush’s Bob Wells. If you need a refresher, he’s not a fan and thinks the best time to start setting fitness goals is right now.
So we wanted to connect with one of Crunch Flatbush’s members who had taken that advice and check in to see how they’re doing. Crunch sent us to Deidre Ferrell.
And they did not steer us wrong.
I visited Deidre on a recent afternoon in her beautifully restored home in the Albemarle-Kenmore Terraces Historic District, right around the corner from the gym. I spent nearly two hours there, sipping coffee, getting a tour of her house, and listening, rapt, as she spoke about her recently deceased husband and how important Crunch Flatbush has been to her during his illness and since his passing seven weeks ago.
Deidre met her husband Ron when she was 17 and he was 28 after he very gingerly approached her on a train. He was a jazz singer and actor who, among other things, appeared in the first all-black soft drink commercial to go national and, for almost 32 years, Deidre was a New York City public school teacher at PS 167 (now PS 532 New Bridges Elementary) on Eastern Parkway. Over their almost 40-year marriage, they bought a historic house in Flatbush and raised a daughter, Rachel, together.
Eight years ago, Ron was diagnosed with cancer and Deidre decided to retire from teaching in April 2015 to care for him full time. But she also made a commitment to care for herself.
“I had a lot of mixed feelings – a lot of stress, a lot of anxiety, a lot of fear, “ she explained. “I promised myself I was gonna do three things: I was gonna get fit, I was gonna teach myself to sketch or draw, and I’m gonna learn to play the piano.”
And she doesn’t mess around with promises. “I’m like a pitbull. Relentless.” Ron called her the most determined person he’d ever met.
Throughout her life, Deidre’s struggled with her weight. She tried Weight Watchers 25 years ago and had some short-term success but not long term. Right before finding Crunch, she had lost 25 pounds using the 17-Day Diet book, something she just picked up one day at a Rite Aid for lack of better options. Then, around June of last year, Rachel was home from college and looking for a gym. They signed her up for a membership at Crunch, but not before the owner, Assaf Gal, loaded Deidre up with guest passes to come try the gym herself. She was actually a member of Blink at the time, but they didn’t have any classes.
“I’m a very social person. I like people and classes and I forgot that in the ‘80s, I was an aerobics queen. I LOVED working out and I just really forgot that.”
She didn’t go right away, but then she had a chance meeting at Stop N’ Shop with a Crunch Zumba instructor, Joseph, and a student of his who traveled every Sunday from the Bronx to take a class with him. She couldn’t imagine what he did in class to make her want to do that and he made her promise to come to one to give it a try.
So she went with her daughter and “it was A BALL!” (Those last two words were actually sung.)
She kept going back every Sunday and then started taking other classes. “When I hit the gym, I hit it hard. Like it was life or death like my life depended on it.” She currently goes three times a week for: Zumba; Zumba Strong; Belly, Butt, and Thighs; and Absolution. It’s gotten to the point that she gets regular text inquiries from instructors asking if she’s coming to their class (many of which she has to turn down). She’s notorious for dancing between her classes as much as during them.
Deidre’s so intense that instructors have had to tell her to slow down on her weight loss. She’s down to 170 pounds from 246 at her retirement.
She lost 55 of those between June of last year and her husband’s death in December. When that happened, she took two weeks off of going to the gym. Returning really crystallized how she felt about having Crunch staff and other members in her life.
“When I returned, I can’t tell you how many people, women I didn’t know, came over to me and said, ‘Where were you? I really missed having you in class. You really inspire me.’ That let me know that people really get to rely on other people. There are so many stories in that gym.”
Ron would have turned 70 on New Year’s Day, that same day that so many people choose arbitrarily as a time to recommit to their health. Deidre hopes people won’t wait for next year, though.
“You can do this. You can get fit at any age. If you’re going through something traumatic, no matter what it is, try to think of a gym as an alternative or a solution. Gym and fitness can solve a lot of problems.”
Deidre is happily maintaining her weight just shy of her original goal, and her drawing is coming along as well:
She really is an inspiring presence. Her students must have loved being in her class. Stop by Crunch Flatbush on any Wednesday, Friday, or Sunday. You’ll see what I mean.
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