I hope this ISN'T significant, but I'm afraid it IS (re:Leslie Sansone)

[rhbrand]

I love Leslie and I hope she doesn't full on retire for a very long time.

60 is the new 40, and it would be great to have a not as young instructor proving that we ladies can and should stay active as our youth starts to leave us.

And good for her gonna be a grandma! Its an awesome thing! Maybe she is planning on being very active in grandbabies life and wants the extra time off.

[Gams]

Is anyone really surprised, though? Kathy Smith, Tamilee Webb, Petra Kolber, Kari Anderson have all stopped making workouts - Gin Miller, too, I think.

[Vintage VFer]

Originally Posted by Gams

Is anyone really surprised, though? Kathy Smith, Tamilee Webb, Petra Kolber, Kari Anderson have all stopped making workouts - Gin Miller, too, I think.

I've thought about this recently. Has any instructor ever "officially" retired? If so, remind me. Instructors like Charlene Prickett just disappear. (Yeah, I know that she lives in Hawaii and gets into battles with the locals.)

They suddenly sell off their stock of DVDs and then fade into the woodwork.

Or, just put old workouts onto streaming platforms - like Margaret Richard.

[kat999]

Ha! All the jokes about this being like Richard Simmons, maybe we need to start an investigative podcast, "Where's Leslie?"

No, but seriously, maybe she wants to leave the door open a little bit and not officially "retire," but just take time off and see if she wants to make it permanent. It does seem weird all the sudden rebranding, but perhaps there was something in a contract somewhere that if she didn't appear in a video for X number of months, they needed to rebrand slightly.

[BunnyHop]

Maybe they're just tidying things up for the long haul, acknowledging the days to come when Leslie really wouldn't be part of things?

It just sorta reminds me of the way my dad tidied up his affairs for estate planning purposes about 20 years before he died. Nothing dreary or sinister, just getting the paperwork side of things tidied away so he didn't have to think about it any more. It definitely made the rest of his life easier, and once he was too sick to manage such things, it was a relief not to have to revisit the issue.

[summer breeze]

Originally Posted by Vintage VFer

I've thought about this recently. Has any instructor ever "officially" retired? If so, remind me. Instructors like Charlene Prickett just disappear. (Yeah, I know that she lives in Hawaii and gets into battles with the locals.)

They suddenly sell off their stock of DVDs and then fade into the woodwork.

Or, just put old workouts onto streaming platforms - like Margaret Richard.

Could you, or anyone, refresh me on Charlene's fights with the locals. It sounds vaguely familiar. She always did have a bit of a prickly personality

[carolyn jane]

The sad news from Charlene Prickett is that her husband died this summer. They had just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. I always loved Charlene - her personality and her workouts - so that just breaks my heart for her.

[kat999]

Originally Posted by carolyn jane

The sad news from Charlene Prickett is that her husband died this summer. They had just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. I always loved Charlene - her personality and her workouts - so that just breaks my heart for her.

Actually, that makes me wonder if something similar happened to Leslie this year. Perhaps she had a loss that made it hard to keep going with as much involvement in the business.

[sheepla]

I guess I'm in the minority but I love the alternate leaders. Whenever I miss Leslie, I have PLENTY of her dvds to go back to.

[summer breeze]

Originally Posted by carolyn jane

The sad news from Charlene Prickett is that her husband died this summer. They had just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. I always loved Charlene - her personality and her workouts - so that just breaks my heart for her.

That is sad about Charlene and I'm sorry. I used to love Charlene and her workouts. My comment about her prickly personality had to do with a brusque note she sent me years ago after I asked her a question by mail. I shouldn't have judged her whole personality by that one possibly off day but I did hear similar stories from others. Still I'm sorry for her loss and wish her well.