Elizabeth "Betsy" Turner Jordan

Even though mom was outwardly very humble, there’s no doubt that she was one of the most motivated (and accomplished) people I’ve ever known. It was her ambitious nature that led her to be the valedictorian of her high school, and to be a nationally and internationally ranked competitive masters swimmer. But if you were to ask mom why she swam, she’d tell you that she just loved the feel of gliding through the water, and that swimming always gave her a sense of peace and comfort. As children we knew mom had been a nationally ranked swimmer when she was growing up, so naturally we all wanted to be swimmers too. Mom was a tireless supporter for us, from driving endless back-to-back later afternoon carpools to a slew of daily swim workouts, to volunteering as the stroke judge for many of our weekend meets. She also kept a swimming notebook for each of us with detailed hand-written records of our swimming times for every event at every swim meet, noting whenever we’d achieved a best time with an asterix. We also had color coded graphs showing how our times in different events were decreasing as we gradually got faster. And for those inevitable days when our times got slower instead of faster, mom might add a note and a sad face saying something like “had a cold” or “didn’t feel well.” And when we built a pool in the backyard of our childhood home in La Jolla, mom made sure that there were lane lines marked on the bottom in tiles (which I’ve honestly NEVER seen in another home pool). One time when the YMCA pool was closed, mom volunteered our backyard pool as a temporary location for our swim team workouts. In a back hallway of our childhood home in La Jolla, one wall was completely covered with cork (originally intended, I believe, as a place to display children’s artwork). Each of us children had our own section of this wall, and as we collected ribbons at swim meets that wall became a rainbow of different colored ribbons won by the four of us. As we got older, mom started to swim in her own masters swim meets as well, so she also had a section on that cork wall. But over time, something started to happen—humble as she was, mom’s section of ribbons and medals on that cork wall kept growing, expanding until her section had pretty much taken over the entire wall. And unlike our multicolored ribbon displays, hers was pretty much all one color—that would be “blue” for first place-- with medals and the occasional (second place) red ribbon. One of my favorite swimming stories about mom is from one of her many annual relay swims across the Maui Channel in Hawaii (a 10-mile race that starts on the island of Lanai and ends in Maui). One year, a spotter on one of the lead boats with a team of young, fast swimmers way up at the front of the pack saw a 10’ tiger shark in the water. Immediately they pulled their swimmer out, radioing back to the support boats behind them about what they’d seen. Boat after boat opted to pull out rather than risk running into a tiger shark, known for their aggressiveness. After a time, the message made it back to the boat with mom’s team, made up mostly of older (ie slower) swimmers. After hearing the news, the team unanimously decided they would keep going, noting with some excitement that with all of the other teams pulling out they’d be moving up in the rankings! Whether it was showing up at daily pre-dawn swim workouts at UCSD, doing ocean swims at the La Jolla Cove, or competing in open water swims all over the world, mom was never happier than when she was swimming. She also treasured the many friendships she had, with her swimming community and many others outside of swimming–family friends, book club, Wellesley Club, Italian classes, yoga classes and more ). Her friendships were a huge source of support to her as she navigated different stages of her adult life. I'm so grateful for everyone who came to celebrate her incredible life with us in March. Thank you!