Mom loved music. She loved to sing and like a lot of our family had a lovely voice. She could also spontaneously harmonize to almost any song. In church as a child, and before I developed the ability myself, I remember being in awe of her and my Aunt Karen when they would sing harmony with the hymns. When Mom was more mobile, she loved to dance. I remember hours dancing around the living room with her as a child. Sometimes making up routines to different songs. I think that must be where my love of Disco comes from. She taught dance for several years as a teen and insisted my sister and I take years of tap, ballet and gymnastics as kids. She was always reminding us to keep good posture. Even making a game out of having us walk balancing a book on our head. Most of my memories of her dancing were long ago except for this recent and precious one. My step dad Dan and I brought Mom to Tulsa, OK to spend a week at my home this time last year. It was a difficult trip for my mom with her joint pain and inability to travel well but we made it. We had an opportunity to attend a dinner dance on New Years Eve but I didn't know if Mom would be up to it. She decided she wanted to go and put on a dress. With portable oxygen and wheelchair in tow, we found a table some distance from the dance floor so the music wouldn't bother her to much. Some where toward the middle of the night, as Steve and I were dancing to something slow and romantic, I looked over to see my Mom and Dan dancing. Dan holding my mom with both arms and her portable oxygen thrown over his shoulder. Mom recounted later what a special night it was and how it had been a decade since they had danced. Mom, I hope you are dancing now while you sing as loud and long as you would like to.
