I was so nervous, dancing again after so many years. During the last year I had gained and lost weight, lost and gained strength, lost and gained my nerve to venture out on to the floor once more.

I spent the first part of the evening taking photographs, avoiding anyone's eye so they wouldn't even think about asking me to dance. Wearing my flip flops, a sure sign of "I'm not dancing, thanks." But eventually my friend who had dragged me along with him and his dance partner to this dance, asked me to dance. I changed into my flats and "gave it a whirl", as they fittingly say now and again. I didn't do too terribly bad frankly and it felt good. I headed back to my seat as quickly as possible and grabbed my security blanket, my camera, and started shooting again as the next dance started. I eventually danced just a few more dances, feeling more and more comfortable.

As I stood by the dance floor, taking a look at my last set of shots on the bright LCD screen on the back of my somewhat intimidating large camera, I glanced up to see a very nice elderly gentleman standing in front of me. I smiled at him and thought perhaps he was looking for his table. He smiled back and me and uttered those words, "Would you like to dance?" He looked to be in his seventies or eighties perhaps. These days it's difficult to tell ages. "Ah, what the heck", I thought, smiling and responding "yes!", put my camera down in a safe, hidden place and put my hand out to take his. We moved out to a place on the dance floor not too far from where we were standing. As we listened to the music floating out from the live big band there, we started moving slowly to the beat, slowly in a back and forth East Coast Swing sort of move. He held my hands in the traditional manner, both in his hands. He raised his left arm to send me out on a twirl and brought me back in with a slight hand movement. I smiled at him, realizing in my mind that I should take care with this wonderful gentleman. The idea that this dance could be his last if I was too energetic went bouncing around my mind. That would be just too terrible. However, I didn't want to hurt his feelings by suggesting that we "take it easy, take it easy!" So, I decided I needed to find the right balance between gentle movements that looked as if they were energetic. Controlling my hands while moving my feet. What a fun challenge this was becoming. I watched his face as his smile broadened.



I asked him his name. "Earl," he said with a grin, "and yours?" I responded with as big a grin as he had offered. And we danced a few more steps. I asked him how long he'd been dancing, expecting an answer somewhere between 50 and 60 years. "A year or so", he said. I grinned and said, "really, just a year? You're very good." He grinned back. He then told him his story just like this:

"I used to dance when I was young, a long time ago, and then I met a woman, a wonderful woman and fell in love and we got married and we were married for 53 wonderful years. She didn't dance and I loved her, so I gave it up. She passed away in April of 2009."

"Not so long ago", I said.

"No," he responded, "and I miss her so." I watched as the tears welled up in his eyes. And he looked at me, smiled and shook his head just a little, "but now I'm dancing again and I've met a couple of ladies at dance class" and he grinned very big. It was then I noticed the not so faint remains of a lipstick kiss on his cheek and mentioned this. He nearly blushed and grinned even bigger.

And we danced some more. As we did some soft twirls and rock steps and side to side swaying, I watched his eyes. You could see the memories of a younger man, who had twirled ladies with energetic turns and maybe even tossed a gal or two up over his head way back when, twinkling there in his eyes. Fond wonderful memories of days gone by. I felt honored to have been a part dancing with this gentleman. Truly a gentleman in every sense of the word.

As the music ended, he kissed my hand and thanked me for the dance. "We'll dance again, Denise," he said with confidence and a wonderful smile and he walked off into the crowd.

And he was right....