If you know Wally Reed, it won’t surprise you that her high-German birth name, Waltraut, means “mighty strength.” She is, indeed, strong.
At 81, Wally is truly a force. Three times a week, she comes to the Y to row and do crunches with a 45-pound weight. Silver Sneakers classes are too slow for her, so she prefers to hit the fitness center first before joining the friends gathered in the lobby to solve the world’s problems — even if they don’t always agree on the solutions.
That’s just fine with Wally. She’s never been afraid of adversity.
Born in Prussia during wartime, Wally has endured lost loves, lost toes (ask her about that one), a heart attack, more back surgeries than she cares to count, and a collection of ailments — one of which left her with, in her words, “the cutest little scar on my butt.”
What never scarred her, however, was the resilience she inherited from her mother, also named Waltraut, who raised her family in Communist East Germany, where they lived on a lake after a stint in a refugee camp.
“I didn’t realize I was a commie,” Wally said with a laugh, recalling how the children in the camp worked from a young age, including cleaning pig sties.
As the youngest in the family, Wally — whose father did not meet her until she was 3 years old after returning from fighting in Siberia — was nicknamed “Putzi,” meaning “sweetie.”
Still, Wally admits she may not always have lived up to the nickname.
“My mother said no, and I said yes,” she explained. “My brother became a chemist. My sister became an English professor. And I became an American.”
And she did.
Wally moved to Maine, where she married a man who tragically died just 19 days after they said “I do.” Heartbreaking as it was, that chapter pushed her to teach herself to read, write and speak English.
She worked in a factory making clothespins and toothpicks — a job she hated.
“I promised myself I would never punch a time clock again,” she said.
What came next?
“I did almost everything but hook,” she said with a grin.
Among her many jobs, Wally earned her real estate license and eventually built a long career with East Akron Neighborhood Development, where she ran the energy program for East Ohio Gas Co.
She also spent time at D&B Nimisila Gardens — now Caston & Main Brew Yard — where the owner introduced her to a man named Bernie, a non-drinker who rarely visited the establishment.
“The owner called him and said, ‘You need to get down here and meet this German!’” Wally recalled. At the time, she was wearing a mini skirt, fishnet stockings and flowing auburn hair.
That’s how she met her true partner.
For 31 years, Wally and Bernie shared a home, a life and a love for the open road. Bernie was a truck driver, and Wally was his enthusiastic passenger.
“He took me wherever I wanted to go,” she said. Though Bernie wasn’t much of a gambler, he happily drove her to Erie and anywhere else she wanted to play the slots. For the last 10 years, he also drove her to the Green Family YMCA — right up until his death a few months ago.
Recently, Wally renewed her driver’s license so she could continue keeping up with life — and her three weekly visits to the Y.
She proudly calls herself a “terrible overachiever,” and she loves that people rarely believe her age.
Wally says that there’s a question she often asks:
“How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?”
Think about that.
Then think about Wally.