Good for you Tom.
My wife can't swim either and is pretty afraid of the water.
We did a change order on our pool to 5' because she is 5'2'' and she feels she could get air if she stands on her toes. She has never even walked into the deep end!

I took her course and it didn't do any thing for me. Maybe I'm not aquatic enough. What I found is I couldn't learn anything in water that's not over my head. I have no fear of the water. I wanted to learn to tread water but wasn't able in such shallow water.It's always easy when you know you can stand up when the going gets tough..
it's just my opinion.