Dwyane Wade on His Mother Conquering Fear of Swimming: “I am a Proud Son”

Retired NBA superstar Dwyane Wade took to Instagram yesterday to congratulate his 65-year-old mother for learning how to swim. “For as long as I can remember, my mother has said she’s gonna learn how to swim one day,” wrote Wade. “After 51 years of not going into pool water…my mother conquered her fear of swimming today.” Wade continued, saying “watching her overcome this fear was so inspiring. I am a proud son.”

The Instagram post shows Wade and his mother, Jolinda, after she took a dip, as well as a picture of her with a swim instructor.

Conquering her fear of swimming is the latest in a line of challenges Jolinda Wade has faced in her life. Famously, when Dwyane Wade was a young child in the South side of Chicago, Jolinda was battling serious addictions to alcohol, heroin, and cocaine. She was eventually sentenced to prison for possession of crack-cocaine, with intent to sell. She was in and out of jail several times over the following years, but Dwyane refused to give up on his mother. “I never gave up on her. Never blamed her,” Wade told Oprah Winfrey in a 2012 interview.

Jolinda took to studying ministry while in prison, and upon release in 2008, Dwyane gifted his mother a church, called The Temple of Praise. Today, Jolinda’s church has grown massively, turning into the New Creation Binding & Loosing Ministries, complete with church, a radio talk show, and an empowerment center.