You will never know how much I loved teaching at Slimmons…Hard to believe I was there for over 40 years. In the exercise studio I had chocolate brown carpets. One of my students Deborah told me you should not exercise on a rug. She said she is going to talk to her husband. A week later her husband Phil put in a hardwood floor and never asked me for a dime.
Before I started my class I walked around the room to say hello to everyone. Two ladies walked in who had never been there before. They were sisters. They drove in from San Diego. One of the ladies was carrying a wooden cane and had dark round glasses on her eyes. She was blind. Her sister told me that she really wanted to meet me and……there they were.
Beth was the one that could see and Sandee was the one who could not see. Sandee said to me…”Can I touch you?” I took her hands and guided them to the top of my head. Her fingers embraced my curly hair. Then She touched my forehead. My eyes. My nose…and …my lips. This is the first time anyone had touched my face like that. And yes I started weeping.
She said, “Why are you upset? I can hear. I can smell. I can walk. I can talk…and I can dance.” When the music started her sister called out the moves and she was dancing away. Later on I grabbed her hand and led her to the front of the class. I whispered in her ear what I was doing and she followed me me perfectly. Tears rolled again.
I learned something very important that day. She taught me a lot. I learned not to focus on what you can’t do, but what you can do.
Love,
Richard
