Helen

I met Helen today.

Our ward went to a retirement home tonight.  They were having a Luau dance and we were invited.  My roommate and I donned dresses and drove over to the home.  The first thing we saw was an old gentleman dancing the swing with a young woman from our ward.  He danced every song with a different girl, and led them all perfectly.

My roommate and I roamed around, trying to find someone to speak with.  I spotted Helen.  We walked over and crouched next to her, striking up conversation.  For nearly an hour we learned this woman's story.  We asked her questions and she had wonderful memories to share with us.

She went on a mission to the "North Western states" when she was 21.  She met her husband in October 1940 at a mission reunion.  They started "going together" (I just love that phrase, don't you??) in April.  They got engaged in November and, even though he wanted to be married before Christmas, they got married January 7, 1942.  I asked her if they did anything fun on their dates.  "Well, we went to the temple," she replied.  How sweet, absolutely wonderful.  Her husband was an airplane mechanic in World War II.  She was one of ten children, and she and her husband had five of their own.  Four daughters and one son, who now lives in Washington with his wife.  She has grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great great grandchildren.

She loved to dance the jitterbug, waltz, and foxtrot.  When they had church dances, her brothers always had to dance at least one dance with her.  There were two boys in her ward that were "quite odd" and she felt bad for them.  So when they asked her to dance she never said no, even though the other girls did.  We don't learn to dance like that, Katie and I tell her.  Nowadays church dances involve jumping up and down and singing loudly.  We don't waltz.  We don't know how.

It is amazing what you can learn, what you can feel, when you're looking for sunshine on a cloudy day.

<3 Mel