Member Spotlight: Ingrid Rehwinkel
Kathy Langer
What are the odds that an 83-year-old tennis player, teacher, always smiling, happy German who sings at the drop of a hat, could survive a tumor that was wrapped around her brain and probably should have killed her?
“Ingrid is the kind of person young players say, ‘I want to be like you when I grow up!’”
Well, it happened to Eastern’s Ingrid Rehwinkel two years ago. And as she humbly puts it, “It is by the grace of God that I am here. Every day is a gift. Gratefulness is my number one word.”
Ingrid was teaching a spring tennis course for juniors in Middletown, New Jersey in 2021 one beautiful spring day. After the session, the head of the Jersey Tennis Academy, Patty Quellette, had planned a tennis party so Ingrid could meet the mayor. Since Ingrid had been presented the USTA Lifetime Teaching Award by Nick Bollettieri via the Internet because of Covid, the mayor wanted to congratulate her in person.
But on the way to the party, she realized that suddenly, she couldn’t lift her feet. “It was as if sandbags had been placed on each of my legs, and I remember thinking that this is not how a heart attack is described.”
Twenty minutes later, instead of meeting the mayor, Ingrid was in an ambulance on the way to the hospital, trying to figure out why her leg was constantly going up and down, “like a railroad crossing gate”, which lasted for six hours. She underwent an MRI which showed a large tumor. And then, reality kicked in.
She was introduced to Dr. Chandranath Sen, a neurosurgery specialist in New York, affiliated with NYU Langone Hospital, on the phone. She explained to him that she “was 83 on paper but my body is 64 years old.” He decided they should meet after finding out “other surgeons in the area didn’t want to touch me.”
Husband, Siegfried, and their two grown children went with her to New York to meet Dr. Sen. “I showed him my 2020 Havana Open Doubles Champion trophy and I asked him to get me ready for the March Houston tournament next year.” He laughed and said he would try.
On July 15, a team of seven, under his leadership, operated for six- and one-half hours and removed the tumor. A tiny spot was left and is checked out every year and is “stable” so far. If any change occurs, she will have to undergo radiation.
After the operation the real work began. She had to learn to walk all over again. Dr. Sen assured her she would walk with two legs, even though “my right one was going in all directions.” Three months later, after taking 15 pills a day, she was able to stop medication, practiced “walking a straight line and working on my balance,” and she began the long journey to get back her tennis mojo.
She can not only walk again, but she is back playing tennis with a vengeance. She and partner, Lola O’Sullivan, took home the medals at Intersectionals, winning the 85’s, playing singles and doubles. And always with a smile.
“I still have teenagers come up to me when I teach to tell me they prayed for me. Many people who were at my party told me they prayed for me. I am humbled and thankful.”
Ingrid and Siegfried moved to NY in 1961, after the Berlin Wall came down. She got hooked on tennis when Siegfried brought a racquet and balls to her at the hospital when she delivered her daughter, Christine, in 1966. He wanted to join a club and he thought this would be something they could do together. And so, her tennis “career” began. Not only did she learn to play, but she also went on to teach, always bringing her two children with her, both of whom went on to earn tennis scholarships at major universities. She has 5 grandchildren in college, all of whom play tennis. She drove 1-1/2 hours to teach and work out at Princeton and worked with Dennis VanderMeer. She’s taught at Seabright, Sweetbriar, and New Shrewsbury Racquet Club in New Jersey. She also taught Nicole Arendt, when she was five years old, at Princeton and who now teaches for Tennis Australia and still keeps in touch with her.
And Ingrid speaks German, French and English.
Presently she teaches a 1-1/2-hour class to 5 women in their 30’s, some coming from recently having babies and needing to exercise and have fun. With Ingrid, that’s a given! And she probably sings a song for them, too.
Ingrid is the kind of person young players say, “I want to be like you when I grow up!”