Sylvia Fulton gulped in a deep breath, pushed a door open and stepped into the black smoke pouring from a house.
It was 2016. Fulton was just a kid then, all of 89 years old. She and her friend Jane Wolny were in Camarillo’s Leisure Village about to leave for lunch when they heard an alarm and realized a house was on fire. The woman inside had been burned and was so disoriented she was pushing the door shut when she thought she was opening it.
Fulton, who then lifted 6-pound weights in Bone Builders classes several times a week, forced the door open and led the woman outside.
“Her blouse had burned,” Fulton remembered Tuesday, pointing at the T-shirt she always wears under her own top. “I took off my blouse and gave it to her.”
Not that much has changed over nine years. Fulton now lifts 2-pound weights instead of the 6-pounders. Her friends said she still puts others needs ahead of her own.
“She goes around helping people,” said Marisue Eastlake, Oxnard city recreation supervisor. “I don’t think she realizes the impact she has.”
The Camarillo woman who turned 98 on Sunday volunteers to help lead regional Bone Builders classes for the city of Oxnard’s Retired & Senior Volunteer Program. The sessions are aimed at strengthening the body and helping seniors worried any tumble will bring fractures that rob them of their independence.
So in five classes a week in Camarillo, Fulton sits in a circle of seniors and takes her turn guiding them through exercises. They balance on one leg in a move called “the stork.” They lift a colored barbell with one arm directly over their heads.
They count out each exercise, focusing their attention on a small wind-up toy in the middle of the circle. Like everything in this class, it carries purpose.
“If we’re not looking at that our back is humped,” Fulton explained.
The Ventura County Area Agency on Aging presented Fulton with a Legacy Award for volunteer service in November. On Tuesday, the Oxnard Senior Services Commission is scheduled to recognize her in the latest in a series of commendations reaching back to when the Ventura County Fire Department honored Fulton, Wolny and another rescuer, Geoffrey Millar, for their fiery courage.
Fulton said she’s not sure she deserves the attention.
“What I thought was, ‘Why me?’” she said, sitting in a hall at the Camarillo United Methodist Church after her second Bone Builders class of the day. “There are so many people who do more than I do.”
Others said the comment fits Fulton like her T-shirts.
“The thing about Sylvia is she has no idea how wonderful she is,” said Eastlake, who oversees the city’s RSVP efforts and nominated Fulton for the Area Agency on Aging award. She said Fulton always focuses on others, describing her as a quiet leader.
“She tells people what to do, but they don’t feel bossed around,” Eastlake said.
‘A doer and a shaker’
She was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her family came to California after her brother was stationed there in the Navy. She worked as an aircraft assembler, including a stint with a company that contracted with NASA.
She has been in Camarillo since 1990. She’s gone through some hard times. Her husband, Jack Fulton, died in 1986. Her daughter, Jeri Fulton, died several years ago of lung cancer.
She shares her home with her nephew. She loves dogs and watches television comedies like the original “Night Court.” She’s addicted to the early evening game show “Jeopardy!”
“Don’t call me at 7 p.m.,” she said.
She stopped driving. Her niece Mary Lou Vozza takes her to Bone Builders classes. Vozza said Fulton still insists on doing household chores like washing the floor on her hands and knees.
“She likes to be active all the time,” Vozza said. “She’s a doer and a shaker.”
Helping seniors during COVID
A long-time community volunteer, Fulton’s connection to Bone Builders started in 2007. She had been diagnosed with osteoporosis, a disease that makes bones brittle. She joined the exercise program and started taking calcium.
“It worked,” she said. About a year in, program leaders asked for volunteers to teach the class. Fulton did what she often does. She raised her hand.
Over the years, she has recruited people to participate in classes, represented RSVP at health fairs and helped other Bone Builders instructors get started.
“She trained me. I’ve been with her since 2012,” said instructor Glatha Hemme of Camarilo, remembering how classes were stopping during the COVID-19 shutdown. Worried about people struggling with isolation, Fulton systematically called virtually every person in her classes just to check on them. When she finished a round of calls, she started again.
“If I can do what she does at 98 that would just be fantastic,” Hemme said.
Fulton said she participates in the classes for selfish reasons. She realizes what the program has meant for her physically and emotionally.
“If I didn’t have them, I’d probably be in bed watching soap operas,” she joked, later acknowledging the statement isn’t quite true. “I don’t like soap operas.”
Tom Kisken covers health care and other news for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tom.kisken@vcstar.com.
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This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: This Camarillo 98-year-old still leads class