Ida White: Beyond the Crown: A Queen in Every Meaning of the Word

BEYOND THE STORY WITH ANDREA

Written by Andrea Benitez

Beautiful at Every Age

🌹Remembering Ida White

There are some people who come into your life and leave something in your heart that time can never take away.

Ida White was one of those people for me.

When Ida and I began working on her story, she was here.

We sat together for hours talking, laughing and sharing pieces of her life.

I never imagined that I would now be finishing her story while grieving the loss of my beautiful friend.

Ida lived 91 years, but you could never define her life by a number, a pageant title or a crown.

She was a woman of faith who loved God deeply.

She loved her children and grandchildren with all her heart.

She loved her community, and she believed in showing up for people.

Here in the City of Kissimmee Florida, wherever there was a cause, somehow, you would find Ida.

You might see her helping feed the homeless, supporting her community, or at church helping bring people closer to the message and love of God.

That was Ida. She didn't just want to be seen. She wanted to serve.

And I was blessed to know her not only as a woman in my community, but as my friend.

Ida loved me, and she made sure I knew it.

She encouraged me constantly.

Whenever she saw something, I posted, something new I was creating or another accomplishment in my life, she became genuinely happy for me.

Somehow, every win for me became a win for Aida too.

That is a kind of love and friendship I will carry with me forever.

When Healing Brought Us Together

Our relationship became much more personal when Ida came to Lakeside Massage & Spa looking for relief from the health challenges she was experiencing.

She had been dealing with significant swelling, fluid retention and lymphedema following hospitalizations. She came to me for lymphatic drainage massage, hoping to find some relief for a body that had been through so much.

Those appointments became about much more than treatment.

We talked. We laughed for hours. We shared our faith. And during those moments, I began to know the woman behind the beautiful gowns, photographs and crowns.

Ida trusted me with something deeply personal That she wanted me to share.

At 81, while participating in beauty pageants, she made the decision to undergo breast augmentation. 10 years later, she had her implants removed.

Ida believed some of the health difficulties she later experienced were connected to what her body had gone through following that decision.

She spoke openly with me about regretting the surgery and wishing she had loved and accepted her body exactly as it was.

And there is something I want everyone reading this story to understand:

Ida wanted this story told.

She Asked Me to Share Her Story

When Ida learned that I was launching Beyond The Story With Andrea, her eyes lit up. She was so happy for me. She encouraged me to follow my dream and believed in what I was creating.

Then she asked me for something I will treasure forever.

She asked me to share her story with the world.

This was not a private experience I decided to reveal after her passing.

Ida specifically wanted me to talk about it because she believed her experience could help other women.

She wanted to create awareness about something we don't discuss enough:

The pressure to remain beautiful and youthful does not disappear with age.

Women in their 60s, 70s, 80s and beyond can still experience tremendous pressure surrounding their appearance.

Ida especially wanted to reach older women participating in beauty pageants, where she felt that pressure could sometimes influence women to make decisions about their bodies in an effort to continue looking younger.

She knew that pressure personally.

Ida told me she had spoken with other older beauty contestants who had undergone cosmetic procedures.

She shared her experience and concerns about what she believed she had put her own body through.

According to Ida, some of those women later chose to have their implants removed as well because they became concerned about protecting their health.

Ida wasn't sharing this so another woman could be judged.

Quite the opposite.

She understood because she had been there herself.

She wanted women considering cosmetic procedures later in life to become informed, speak with qualified medical professionals about their individual risks, think carefully about their health and ask themselves an important question:

Am I making this decision because it is truly what I want, or because I am afraid that growing older makes me less beautiful?

Ida wanted her difficult experience to become something good. If telling her story could make another woman pause, ask questions, protect her health or simply look at herself with more love, then she wanted it told.

Her message came from experience, but most importantly, it came from love:

Love yourself the way you are.

Our bodies are more than something to decorate. They carry us through motherhood, illness, heartbreak, celebrations, losses and new beginnings.

They survive with us. They heal with us.

They tell the story of the lives God has blessed us to live.

A Queen in Life

Today, when I think about Ida, I don't think first about her pageant crowns.

I think about her love for God.

I think about her children and grandchildren.

I think about the woman who showed up for her community and helped feed people who were hungry.

I think about her sitting with me, laughing for hours while I worked on her story.

And I think about how happy she became every time she saw me doing well.

Ida was a beauty queen, but her greatest beauty was never found on a pageant stage.

It was in her faith.

It was in the way she loved her family.

It was in her service to her community.

It was in her kindness.

And it was in her desire to turn one of her own difficult experiences into something that might help another woman.

That tells you everything you need to know about her heart.

Ida, you believed in me. You celebrated my victories as though they were your own.

You encouraged this magazine before it was even born, and you trusted me with your story. Ida came in my office one day with a special gift, one of the crows she has won in her pagents. absolutly beautiful. She said to me, from one queen to another as she placed it on my hands. she said what i do for my community with so much love can only be the work of a true life queen.. We hugged we cried and I will never forget this moment.

You asked me to tell your story so another woman might be spared some of the pain you experienced.

Today, with love and dignity, I am keeping that promise.

Your story will continue. Your message will continue. And every time something beautiful happens in my life, I will remember the woman who somehow made my victories feel like hers too.

Rest peacefully, my beautiful friend.

You wore many crowns in your lifetime, but the greatest crown you ever wore was the love, faith and kindness with which you lived your life.

You were a beauty queen on the stage, Ida, but to those of us blessed enough to know and love you, you were truly a queen in life. 🌹