LEWISTON – Alex Chicoine sauntered across the parking lot at Lewiston High School’s tennis facility, casually glancing at the girls’ doubles match on Court 1. He was early to his own practice, which wasn’t schedule until 4 p.m.

He walked over to girls’ coach Anita Murphy, his racket still in its bag and cradled in his arms and looked down.

“Did you get out and take a walk yet today, memere?” Chicoine asked, almost accusing Murphy of having been neglectful in her exercise.

“Not yet,” Murphy said as a smile crept across her face. “I will though, I promise.”

Murphy turned from Chicoine, rolled her eyes and laughed.

“Always nagging me, that one,” she said.

Chicoine, Murphy’s grandson, is a freshman this year at Lewiston, and will play on the varsity team for his uncle, Murphy’s son, Ron.

And he has plenty of reason to nag his grandmother.

This winter, while Murphy was presenting a pair of tennis players for President’s Awards to the Auburn-Lewiston Sports Hall of Fame, she felt an odd pain in her back.

“(My husband) Pat started rubbing my back, trying to make it go away,” Murphy said, “but it still didn’t feel right.”

“My sister called me and told me what the symptoms were,” Ron said, “and I told her to make sure she went to the hospital right away.”

An EKG didn’t show any problems, but the blood work did.

Murphy had suffered a heart attack.

“It was strange, because I didn’t really show any of the symptoms, but I guess that’s what happens with women,” Murphy said. “We can be asymptomatic.”

Murphy’s doctor first suggested angioplasty, but the blockage was too close to her aorta, and that would have been too risky, so they elected surgery. On January 2, Murphy went under the knife.

“They told me, 12 weeks I couldn’t work,” Murphy said. “I started counting off on my fingers, seeing where that would put me in terms of tennis.”

For the record, it’s been just over 15 weeks since Murphy’s surgery. She’s been on the courts since the season began, and has no plans to stop anytime soon.

“I can’t go out there and hit with the girls anymore, not yet anyway,” Murphy said. “I can go hit balls to them, but if they hit it back, I can’t return it.”

Meanwhile, Ron, an anesthesiologist, and Alex, a concerned a loving grandson, will be keeping an close eye on her.

“She’s probably as healthy now as she’s been since she was a young woman, honestly,” Ron said. “She’s eating right now, she’s exercising, and she’s feeling great.”