We Danced

Los Angeles, California

A year after my trifecta of death year, which was when I lost my closest, beloved friend, my mother, and my husband in one calendar year (ven just typing that makes me sigh greatly...), Joel and I observed New Year's Eve with friends. When raising our glasses for a toast to the new year, I added on that I made it through the entire year without someone dying on me. I guess that landed as a bit of a shocking downer, but it was a good thing. Something worth celebrating, even though the grieving was continuing.

So, that's my preface to the blatant obviosity of writing that some years are tough! I could recount all of the years in my life that have been hard (1963, 1966, 1967-8, 1972, 1997-98, 2012-2014). These dates are, of course, meaningless without elaborating on what made them so challenging. I could recount this all in a memoir, but... yuck.

Anyway, 2026 has been wracked with injuries that actually occurred to both Joel and me in 2025. We've endured my sciatic flare-up, his work-related shoulder injury, then my shoulder bursitis followed by his shoulder surgery. There's been a lot of limping, sling-wearing, heat and ice applications, Advil-administering and moaning. What there hasn't been is a lot of dancing, which is at the top of the list of things that run both Joel's and my engines. From Cinco de Mayo 2025 to now, there hasn't been much. Weirdly, a DJ played some salsa at our local Greek Festival this past May and we were able to dance to half of a Marc Anthony song. Joel had surgery about six weeks later.

So now that summer is in full force, we decided to attend one of the Sizzling Summer Nights events at The Autry Museum here in LA. It can be a lovely experience, on the courtyard surrounded by the museum which shades us during the 2-hour, early-evening event. It is often a band we know, including my favorite LA band, Ricardo Lemvo and Makina Loca. Back in my early salsa days, I recall hanging out at a table with Ricardo and the owner of the club, while we waited for salsa class to end and social dancing to begin. It's not Joel's favorite band, but he agreed to go out, just to be amongst salseros we know, and to hear the music. Dancing was not an option...

...until, Joel held out his hands. Can you do this? I asked. And, yes he could, leading with his left hand. It was a little weird, and a little awkward, but we were dancing. And we followed that up with a cha-cha. That was pushing it, so when the song ended, we quit. A couple was walking by and stopped to compliment us on our style of dancing. If they only knew, I said to Joel afterwards. We have gotten a lot of compliments over the years, but that was always for two-handed dancing!

Anyway, the beauty of it was that we danced. And, like the short dance at the Greek Festival, it will get us by for awhile. Joel has started PT just as I am finishing my PT. I suspect we will be dancing again, hopefully even more regularly, sometime this fall. We'll take it slow. I think, as in most things in life, slow is underrated. The important thing is, as The Kinks sang, Don't Forget to Dance. We definitely won't.