Hobbs seniors medal at state Senior Olympics

Margie McBroom and Cynthia Bryant are living proof that neither age nor infirmity have to determine what determined women can achieve.

McBroom, 90, and Bryant, 76, bowled their way to silver medals at the most recent Senior Olympics Games held in Albuquerque last month. There’s no telling what they might have won if McBroom hadn’t been suffering from an abdominal aneurism that landed her in the hospital a few days after the pair returned to Hobbs.

“She was really feeling bad,” Bryant said. “She thought she might quit after the third frame of the doubles competition, but she decided to go on and we won silver medals.”

For McBroom, this was her 26th appearance at the Senior Olympic Games. She competed one year shortly after a knee replacement and another year throwing the ball with her left hand even though she usually bowls with her right hand. She bowled left handed because she had broken her right arm.

Bryant is a relative newcomer, with 12 appearances at the Senior Olympics. She’s had two knee replacements and was back at work three weeks afterward instead of the six weeks recommended by her surgeon.

“He told me six weeks, but he also said he knew I would do what I wanted to do no matter what he said,” Bryant laughed.

McBroom was transported to a Lubbock hospital, where physicians corrected the aneurysm. She spent several days in intensive care before being released to come home.

Over the years they’ve bowled together, the women have won a bevy of gold and silver medals.

“We like to win,” McBroom said. “But the most important thing we’ve gotten out of bowling together is our friendship.”

“Yes,” Bryant said. “We’re not sisters by birth, but sisters by choice. We’re sisters by love.”

Both women have adult children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

McBroom’s son, Don, who lives in Midland, comes to Hobbs every Tuesday to take his mother out to lunch.

Bryant has six children, three men and three women. She shares a home with one of her daughters, who, according to Bryant, drives a tour bus “all over the Southwest, to Texas, South Dakota, Colorado, California.”

Bryant, who retired not long ago, now keeps the grounds at the RV park where she and her daughter live.

“I keep it looking nice and all that mowing keeps me in shape,” Bryant said.

“We think it’s important for people to know that life doesn’t stop just because you get to a certain age,” the women said. “People just need to stay active.”

When they aren’t bowling in a local league, McBroom and Bryant spend some of their time finding “bargain places to eat, going to the (Hobbs) senior center to play cards and finding other fun things to do.”

They’re already planning to compete in next summer’s Senior Olympics Games, where they will not only compete, but also attend the banquet and the dance on the last night of the games.

“That’s one of our favorite parts,” they said.

Dorothy N. Fowler can be reached at education@hobbsnews.com .