Still in the Swim : Recreation: Rae Terran conquered her fear of the water late in life. At 94, she still teaches a class in the Burbank YMCA pool.

Swimming suits Rae Terran. It has ever since she learned how, and that was when she was 67.

In a couple of weeks, she’ll be 95.

She’s still in the pool, still teaching an exercise class twice a week at the YMCA of Burbank, just as she has ever since she learned to do laps. All those years, and always as a volunteer--a commitment so extraordinary that it serves as testament to one person’s faith in others, the notion of community and the determination to conquer one’s worst fear.

“Way back when, when I learned to swim, I promised myself, I said, if I take this fear out of me, I’m going to spend the rest of my life taking that fear out of other people,” Terran said.

For a quarter of a century, she has been doing just that--and impressing the people she meets with her selflessness and energy.

“Good heavens,” said a longtime friend, Margot Young of Burbank, “how many people do you know who have been volunteering for 25 years? And who dunk themselves twice a week to help other people? I just have such great respect for her. And she’s a dear to go with it.”

Added R. Glenn Ford, 74, of Burbank, who has been a regular in the Tuesday and Thursday “aquasize” class for the past two years: “What’s unusual is that in this day and age, everybody who does something expects something back. She does it because she enjoys it.”

“She’s one of those people you want to clone,” said Karen Layo, who supervises pool and gymnastics programs at the YMCA. Plans are under way, she said, for a big party on Terran’s birthday, Dec. 16. “Cake, of course. And we’ll blow up balloons and throw them in the pool for her.”

These, Terran said, are sentiments that money can’t buy. And that’s why she has never asked the YMCA to pay her. “From time to time,” she said, “I’ve had to say to them that I didn’t come here for that. I came here to volunteer.”

Actually, she said, she started going to the YMCA in the late ‘60s--when she was in her late 60s--because, frankly, she was out to do something for herself.

She had a happy marriage. She and her husband, Al, who worked in the construction business, had a home in Burbank. There were four children.

But she felt she had missed out--on the cold, crisp rivers and lakes in her native New York, then the ocean when she and her husband had moved west. She had always loved to play outside, especially with the children--but she was terrified of water.

“I couldn’t even take a bath in a full tub of water,” Terran said. “You know how people love to submerge in a tub full of warm water, just relax? I couldn’t do it. I was afraid I’d suffocate.

“That’s what pushed me to learn to swim. I said, I’m either going to learn or I’m going to sink. Then I thought, if I sink, someone will pick me up.

“Well, I haven’t sunk and I’m still here.”

Once in the swim of things, Terran opted to volunteer to teach others her newfound skills. And she took on leadership of the “aquasize” class, designed especially for senior citizens or others who want exercise--or who are under doctor’s orders to work out--but need a warm pool to cushion the stress of exertion.

Just as she did back in the ‘60s, Terran takes the bus to the pool. And as always, someone in the class volunteers to drive her home.

“I still enjoy it as much as I did 10 years ago, 15 years ago, and so on,” Terran said. “The people are so nice, so friendly, so beautiful. I’ve seen so many beautiful, friendly people coming in and out of that Y that you could cry sometimes.”

Over the years, Terran has refined the workout. The 1994 version, delivered Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, is thorough.

“We do exercises all over our body,” she said. “There is not one inch that isn’t exercised. Neck, arms, legs. Even our eyes.”

Indeed, the hourlong session--which used to be run to rock and roll but now features the sounds of the Big Band era, supplied by Ford--concludes with exercises for the eyes.

“You keep your head steady ahead,” Terran tells the class. “Don’t move your head. You look up, down, side to side and so on.”

She’s living proof, she reminds her pupils, that exercise is good for the body--and the soul. “What do most senior citizens do? Sit around and play cards. They don’t get any exercise and the bones get brittle. This is not good.”

Better, she said, that they should jump in the pool--like her. Said another class regular, Lori Crawford, 68, of Burbank: “I always say, ‘Rae, stick your foot in--if it’s cold, we’re going to get a heart attack.’ She never does that. She always jumps right in. Boom!”

Obviously, however, this can’t go on forever. And going on 95, Terran said, she’s given a fair amount of thought to that eventuality.

“People say to me, ‘Are you still teaching exercise?’ And I say, ‘Yes.’ And they say, ‘Are you going to teach it until you die?’

“You know what my answer is? My answer is, yes, I will. They’ll pick me up and I’ll be all clean, all warm, in the nice clean water. There’s no better place.”