Story Photos
 Lotus Luengen, right, and her granddaughter, Amy Greer, work out together at Curves. Greg Ebersole / The Daily News
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No rocker for this granny: Lotus Luengen walks the walk when it comes to fitness
Tuesday, July 8, 2008 12:31 AM PDT
By Leslie Slape
Printable version
E-mail this articleLotus Luengen learned early that you can’t avoid the bumps in the road of life, so you might as well trot over them.
“It’s amazing how life twists and turns and rises and falls,” said Lotus, 74, of Kelso.
“Anything’s possible,” agreed her granddaughter, Amy Greer, 32, who’s climbing over some difficult bumps of her own.
The two women work out together at Curves for Women on Vandercook Way. And as Lotus, a former marathon runner, inspires her granddaughter to get her body toned and fit, she’s also helping Amy shape up her attitude.
“I appreciate life,” Lotus said. “Coming from a background of not having much, being of so many children, you put priorities not on material things but on life itself. What you put into it is what you get.”
Lotus’ life
Lotus was born in 1933 in New Zealand. Her father, a sailor in the British navy, was stationed in the Orient, which is where he got the idea to name the new baby Lotus. Her mom preferred the name Barbara, but Dad had his way.
Being very shy, Lotus didn’t enjoy her unusual moniker, but “I grew into the name,” she said. “I like it now.”
Her father was killed when she was 8, leaving her mother with five children. Five years later her mother remarried, to an American sailor this time, and the family moved to America.
“My mother had three more children,” she said. “Being a middle child made me more flexible.”
She’s also driven. On her first day of school in America, she realized her accent drew attention. She decided to keep quiet until she could talk like everyone else. “Within a year, I had lost most of my accent.”
She grew up, got married and bore three children. The marriage ended after 16 years, and then she met Jerry Luengen, who also had three children. They’ve been married 38 years.
Before she met Jerry, Lotus had always taken it for granted that she would die young because of her family history. Her mother died at 52 and her grandparents died of cancer at 49.
“He said, ‘What do you mean? You’ve got a lot of life left in you if you stay active,’ ” she said.
The couple joined gyms. At age 39, she got her first bicycle. When they were living in Alaska, Jerry asked her to go running with him. “I said, ‘I’m not sure I want to do that.’ He did. I got tired of listening to him so finally I went,” she said.
Her husband’s position with an oil company took them all over the country. While they were living in Oklahoma, Lotus began running races and realized she had found her favorite exercise. In 1979, at age 46, she ran her first marathon.
“It’s a great stress reliever,” she said. “When you can’t get your frustrations out, you can pound the pavement.”
After leaving Oklahoma, she ran several marathons in Anchorage and ran two Portland marathons.
By 1986, she was slowing down, “and I decided wasn’t going to do any more marathons,” Lotus said. “I switched to running every other day, alternating with biking and swimming. I have high energy. It comes more easily for me than it does for some people.”
She moved to Kelso in 2007 to be near her daughter and family, and joined Curves in September. By December, she had persuaded Amy, her oldest grandchild, to join her.
Amy’s story
“It’s not nearly as exciting as hers,” Amy said with a smile.
She graduated from Kelso High School in 1993 and married Josh Greer. They have twin girls, Selena and Bree, 13, and a 10-year-old daughter, Alyssa.
She lifted weights in high school, but after having kids, “I didn’t do much besides chase my little ones around,” said Amy, a full-time mom.
In September 2006, her life took a tragic turn when her brother, Russell Sprague, was killed. He was 28.
“I hit a depression, and on came the weight,” she said. It was Russell’s death that prompted Lotus and Jerry to move to Kelso from Everett a few months later.
“I decided at this point I needed to do something to get healthier so I can be there for my kids,” Amy said. “And I did, with Grandma’s encouragement.”
She dropped 30 pounds before joining Curves and has lost another 20 since December, she said, despite a new worry about her mother’s health. “It’s been a rough year, with Mom getting ready for surgery,” said Amy.
“I do think exercise helps get you through a lot of this,” Lotus said.
Amy nodded. “It’s a stress reliever for those frustrations.”
“I always say things will work out,” Lotus said. “What will be, will be. It’s not hopeless.
... You can’t give in to it. If you do, you lose the battle.”
The women enjoy the atmosphere at Curves, a circuit workout with stations that target different muscles.
“The camaraderie is excellent,” Lotus said. “You don’t feel like you’re in a strange place. ... People can wave goodbye, or hello. We don’t really know each other but all are attempting to do something better for themselves.”
Amy’s goal is “just to get healthier and stay more fit. Teenagers have a tendency to run a little high energy, and my girls are extremely high energy. I just want to be fit enough to be around for quite a while.”
Amy said her inspiration is “right here,” indicating her grandmother. And her husband, Josh, is “extremely supportive, too.”
Lotus finds inspiration from God, her husband, and the women at Curves. “I think if you can share with each other, that enough is encouragement,” she said.
She’s currently helping Jerry, 72, train for another marathon. Since Lotus had two toe surgeries, she and Jerry have been walking. “We’re up to 12 miles,” she said. “I’m finding that’s tough. I haven’t done that for a while.”
But Jerry, who’s highly competitive, “has really pulled me along,” she said. “He’s an encourager, and he sets an example.”
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