The Blogfathers

He was the High School Quarterback, and the popular kid in school. He was on the A-list and he could have asked any number of girls on a date, and they would have loved to go on a date with him. He knew everyone’s name. He was in the papers. He had lots of friends. He had everything.

She was different. She had few friends. Went to a different school and was not the head cheerleader. She was not the most popular. Not everyone knew who she was, and if they did, she was not invited to their parties, was not asked to go to the movies, and really had no social life.

It was that time of the school year, when boys and girls are ripe with anticipation and eager to plan the perfect dance. It was the time of the Junior/Senior Prom. When we have the opportunity to show our best manners, wear our fancy clothes, and be the prince or princess of the ball.

The Quarterback had his prom; he was of course part of the Royal Court, and had been the epitome of the All-American kid. She had not had a prom. Her school planned a prom type dance, but it was not that fancy, did not have tuxes or elaborate gowns that mothers and daughters shopped endlessly for while being giddy about who would ask them to the dance.

She dreamed of going to a dance like the dance like the Quarterback took for granted. She wanted to be asked, to dress up and to have a great dinner with her prince. Her prince never rode up on his white horse. He did not call, and there would be no dance in her final days of school. Her only chance at being a princess would vanish before it began.

The Quarterback happened to hear of the young girl’s plight. He wondered why she did not have a date. Had wondered why this beautiful girl did not have a prince to come to her house and take her to dinner and treat her like the beautiful lady she had become. He would not stand idly by while this travesty occurred. It was time to show the world that he was the leader he had been deemed to be, and to show why he had been given the title he so aptly used to his advantage.

He asked the girl if he could accompany her as her date to her dance. He would pick her up in his car, and take her to a lovely restaurant where she could order anything from the menu, and then enjoy an evening of dancing and smiling and pictures, and music. She could introduce him to all of her friends and to tell them where they ate and what a fun time dinner had been. She could show themher corsage and the new dress she had picked out with her mother.

The night was a complete success. She danced with him, and he held her tight like he had loved her his entire life. She was beautiful, and she beamed the entire time from the moment he picked her up until he brought her safely home. She thanked him with a kiss. Not a kiss you would expect from lovers, but like a kiss you get from a sister.

My sister was born with Spina Bifida, and Cerebral Palsy. She went to a special needs school in town and was going to be leaving there and would not return. This was her last chance to have a normal dance with the High School Quarterback, and to be the princess of the ball she had always dreamed. We danced, she in her wheel chair and I even slow danced a few songs holding her cradled in my arms. I would have asked her to be my date a 100 times just to see the happiness in her eyes that evening. I started to describe the compassion that I showed for her that evening by taking out a girl with special needs, but what I did not realize is the compassion I felt, she gave to me, and the lesson I learned that evening about how someone with special needs can teach those without any need.

[UPDATE]: My Favorite Prom Date Dance? Go to my site and see. Genuine Prom What was your promdance song?

Ours in 1982 was Journey’s “Open Arms.”

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