Inga M. Beck

Tonight I saw a beautiful thing, and it was something that touched me so deeply that I cannot but share it with the rest of the world.

Recently I arrived to a very small town where I will be working for the summer. Not really knowing anyone I was graciously invited to a birthday party, an invitation I accepted gratefully. I didn’t really know anyone there except three coworkers and their spouses. Aaaanyway, I was having a good time, enjoying the spirit of the thing and the band that was playing some great classics. All around a good party, even though I am a bit of a wallflower sometimes.

So to get to the point, at this party there was also an elderly married couple. I had seen the man walking in earlier that evening with a walker, with no little effort. But as the band starts playing a lovely old Icelandic song, loosely translated “I’m still the idiot you kissed back then”, this elderly yet dignified man, pushes his walker away and pulls his wife on her feet for a dance.

They looked ever so young, happy and carefree dancing together. Even as two younger people which I imagine were their grandchildren, stepped in to help out, a young woman, joined them in the dance to help keep him on his feet, and the young man stayed close, ready to catch them if needed.

As if this didn’t move me enough, a man sitting next to me then leans in and tells me that not long ago this man had been in a wheelchair, and even then they had managed to dance together. Then he went on to tell me that he had been diagnosed with cancer and didn’t have much longer.

I had difficulties holding back the tears. Looking at those smiling faces, the youthful joy shining from their eyes, I thought: now there are two people who will have no regrets when they leave this earth.

I hope, with all my heart, that when I have reached the eve of my lifetime I will still have that light in my eyes that I saw in the eyes of those two young souls tonight, stepping in what may as well be their very last dance. And I wish, that everyone be given the chance to experience something as beautiful as what those two have, even if it’s just for a little moment, like the duration of a slow dance.

It is truly, the most beautiful human experience.