Our First Dance Lesson, at Seventy

My husband and I have been married for forty-six years and have never danced together properly. At every wedding, we did a sort of shuffle. This year, for our anniversary, our daughter bought us ballroom dance lessons.

We were the oldest couple in the class by about thirty years. The young instructor called us "the professionals," as a joke, and we laughed. We learned the foxtrot. Then the waltz. Then, against all odds, the cha-cha.

My husband counts out loud the entire time. I step on his feet. We laugh so much the other couples have started laughing with us. Last week, the instructor made us demonstrate the waltz for the class. We made it from the first note to the last and didn't miss a step.

At our granddaughter's wedding in September, when the band played a waltz, we stood up and danced. Properly. Everyone cleared the floor and watched. My husband whispered, "We should have done this years ago." I said, "We're doing it now."