Not even retirement can catch MacEachern

August 1, 2024

Coline MacEachern, in her fourth year operating Sunset Massage in Port Hood, has won multiple medals at the Canada 55+ Games, both in the pool and on the track. Photos below: Contributed

Forget about “Freedom 55,” or even 65. Coline MacEachern has found her freedom in retirement by going back to school and launching a therapeutic massage business in her home community of Port Hood.

MacEachern, who readily points out she recently turned 68, is in her fourth year as sole proprietor of Sunset Massage, and she’s loving every minute of it.

“I feel good, and I love to do it,” she adds. “Both those things keep me going, and if I can make people feel better about themselves, whatever their ailment might be, that’s all very positive.”

MacEachern retired as aquatics director at Strait Area Pool in Port Hawkesbury about seven years ago. She worked there for 36 years, but decided that retirement wasn’t really for her, at least not yet.

“I think when you get towards the end of your career, you look at yourself and you say, ‘do I really want to go home and do nothing, or do I want to challenge myself?’” she recalls.

So, with that in mind, she attended a weekend workshop at the Canadian College of Massage and Hydrotherapy (CCMH) in Halifax. That workshop prompted her to take their three-year program.

“I was always really interested in physical activity, and how the body works,” MacEachern says. “I was always intrigued by that. Being fit and being healthy was always one of my main goals.”

She certainly had the opportunity to learn a lot about her own body, and what it can and can’t do, as she’s spent decades as a marathon runner and triathlete, and also competed and won medals on the national level in the Canada 55+ Games.

“When I was 50, I set a goal to train and to qualify for the Boston Marathon, and I did,” she says. “People thought I was crazy. I said, ‘no I’m not. This is something I want to do.’”

She says her second career was a natural for her.

“I always knew a lot about the body, but I always wanted to learn more,” she explains. “So, this was the perfect opportunity to learn the different aspects. I’m learning every day, still.”

“There’s so much to learn about the association between the person and the body,” MacEachern adds. “As a therapist, that’s my approach, to teach people about their own bodies, and what it’s capable of doing, and what happens when it’s not capable of doing something.”

“There’s such an association between one end of the body and the other. It’s a completely amazing field of study.”

MacEachern graduated from CCMH in December 2020 and opened her clinic in the old St. Peter’s parish hall in Port Hood. The clinic is now located in the Dr. John Waters Community Health Centre, which also houses the Chestico Pharmacy, the Islandview Beauty Salon, Dr. Michael Ojoleck’s dental practice, and the Inverness County Home Support Society.

“I think when you get towards the end of your career, you look at yourself and you say, ‘do I really want to go home and do nothing, or do I want to challenge myself?’”

“It’s a perfect location,” she says. “I really like it there.”

“I get a lot of referrals from the doctors at Inverness Consolidated Memorial Hospital, or chiropractors, or other people in the field who say, ‘why don’t you try this?’’”

But she says word of mouth is probably the biggest reason her clinic has been successful.

Though her clinic is busy, it’s not like MacEachern has given up on competing, as she was scheduled to compete in the annual Cabot Trail Relay which was run the final weekend in May.

“I’m always training for something,” she says, noting that she’s competed in the 17-leg relay race since it began in the late 1980s. “I’ve done every leg and I’m on my second time around.”

“I love it. It’s such a great time.”

She also doesn’t see any end in sight for Sunset Massage.“I set my goals as I go” she explains. “You can’t put a time on it.”

“I don’t look at the future and say, ‘I’m going to be there five years, or three years.’ I’m just going to take every day as it comes.”