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One Last Dance: It's Never Too Late To Fall In Love

by Mardo Williams, Kay Williams, Jerri Williams

Published: 2005-09-30
Hardcover : 422 pages

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After a distinguished career as journalist and author (for which he won an Ohioana Library Award), Mardo Williams completed the first draft of this novel at age 95. He asked his daughters, Kay and Jerri (both writers), to finish the book if he could not. He died a few weeks later. His daughters ...

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Introduction

Editorial Review

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Excerpt

A Violent Encounter

At first Morgan saw only movement; colorless shapes milling about. They turned into people.

A woman using a walker labored his way. Her eyes were anxious, her ankles so swollen that her legs looked like thick poles. A pinch-faced gentleman leaned on a counter behind which a receptionist sat. "Where's my wife?" he asked petulantly. Two women, slumped side by side on the couch like two rag dolls, stared forlornly into space. ...

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Discussion Questions

From the Publisher:

1. Here in an aging America - unlike so many other cultures - we have a love affair with youth. Our television commercials, magazine ads, and even most television shows are geared to the younger, beautiful people. Instead of being overlooked, how could the contributions of our older generations be acknowledged and used to benefit society?

2. In the novel, Dixie is 79 and Morgan is 89. How realistic is it to expect to fall in love at that age? Discuss the complications of romance and marriage at this stage in life. Also talk about the advantages.

3. Dixie would possibly like a relationship but does not want to turn into a care giver. Do you think she is selfish? Would you take the kind of risk she takes by inviting Morgan into her life? Discuss your thoughts about whether women manage being alone better than men do.

4. Although the novel explores problems related to aging, it also explores relationships, motivations and needs of human beings at every age. How does your view of Tony change as the novel progresses?

5. Dixie has concerns regarding Morgan's past. Is she right to be worried? Grandson Tony has been led to believe that Morgan is wealthy. Had Morgan been treated fairly by his family? Did he create some of his own problems?

6. Dixie is afraid Morgan will be repulsed by her body and Morgan is afraid he might not be able to perform. Discuss the nature - and truth - in these fears. Do we all have young minds in aging bodies? Discuss your thoughts on sexuality as life progresses into the later years.

7. There are many new challenges that surface as we age. In the story, Dixie struggles to keep her house up and is considering taking in a boarder. For retirees, finances can be a huge issue even with the best of planning. The thought of not being able to drive and losing independence is painful. The decision to consider a move to a retirement home means giving up privacy and independence for the rest of life. The novel also touches on end-of-life choices. How do we prepare to face these difficult decisions? Discuss others you know who have helped determine what you'd do - and what you wouldn't do.

8. What does the novel suggest about the importance of stability in family life? How has lack of it affected Dixie? Morgan? Tony?

9. How important are the following people to Tony and how do they influence his outlook and attitude? his father, his stepfather, Eddie, Officer Pfeiffer, Dixie, Morgan, Laura. How important is Tony to Dixie? to Morgan?

10. As the novel progresses, the reader sees change and growth occurring in Morgan, Dixie and Tony. What events seem to most influence growth and change in Morgan? Dixie? Tony?

11. After the accident, Morgan's recovery is slow - in part due to his age. Dixie ends up being the care giver after all and cannot go to her job even though she has bills to pay and needs the money. Morgan ends up in Whispering Pines Nursing Home and Dixie must face the cold hard facts of Medicare and Medicaid and the sad cost of being old and sick in America. Are there solutions to these problems? Do you have hope that they'll be implemented for your benefit?

12. Morgan thinks to himself, "Who would ever believe the best thing that ever happened to me happened at age 90!" Do you think the same is possible in your own life?

13. The author, Mardo Williams, wrote his first novel at age 92. He suggests we live life every minute and always be in search of new experiences regardless of age. Discuss the title of the book and how it fits the story. How did the novel influence your thoughts and expectations for the future?

Suggested by Members

Who do you relate most to in this story? Why?

Did this novel change your view towards your retirement?

by BetsyO58 (see profile) 03/27/18

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»	Publisher's Book Info

Notes From the Author to the Bookclub

[From the Publisher: After a distinguished career as journalist and author, (for which he won an Ohioana Library Award), Mardo Williams completed the first draft of this novel at age 95. He asked his daughters, Kay Williams and Jerri Williams Lawrence, to finish the book if he couldn’t. He died a few weeks later. His daughters honored their father’s wishes. One Last Dance is a collaborative labor of love.]

When our dad, Mardo Williams, was 92, he sat down at his computer and began his first novel. How hard could it be? He'd been a writer for over seventy years, first as a journalist, then as a teller of tales. He was writing One Last Dance, he said, to inspire old folks not to sit in a corner and wait for life to happen, but to go full speed at life, and yes, even have a love affair.

At the time he was a widower, living with a "significant other," a woman he'd become reacquainted with while touring with Maude (1883-1993): She Grew Up with the Country, his biography/memoir about his mother, written by him at 88 and published by Calliope Press in 1996. The way Dad tells it, "Ann invaded my home on the pretext that I autograph her copy of Maude. We talked of past experiences at The Columbus Dispatch, where we'd both worked. Then she threw her arms around me and suggested we share the lonely moments of our lives together!" For parts of two years they shared living quarters, expenses, and chores, saw movies, and even went to dances when, as Dad once laughed, she wasn't "too weak to hold me up."

Dad wrote much of this novel between media engagements, book signings, and hospitalizations. He more than believed in the book. He was consumed by it. He kept plugging away at it despite hip replacement and sinus surgeries, congestive heart failure, and pneumonia that wouldn't go away. He had a great deal he wanted to say about the landscape of aging, and what it means to be in your nineties with the body failing and the mind and spirit still wanting it all. And he wanted to say it as humorously as possible. Blind from macular degeneration, he was forced to dictate the last chapters of the first draft.

The three of us planned to work together on the second draft, our now sightless Dad revising as we read aloud to him, chapter by chapter. For some time, he'd mulled over how the book should end, upbeat or down or in between. He decided he wanted a positive ending and was going to dictate it to us when we three next met. He insisted we finish the book if he couldn't. We promised. Dad died two weeks before we were to start revisions. He was 95.

The two main characters were 100% there. We fleshed out a few others. We completed the ending using his notes. If we reached an impasse, we reread his manuscript and found the clues we needed to continue. Dad's presence was palpable. He was our guide and our inspiration. This is his story, the way he wanted to tell it.

"There's no such thing as being too old," Dad once told an interviewer. "Life is for living, no matter what our age or condition. If we can sing, we should sing. If we can write, we should write. We should always be in search of a new experience, always be ready to commit ourselves to a new interest."

He lived this philosophy right up to the day of his death, February 3, 2001.

Kay Williams

Jerri Williams Lawrence, Mardo’s daughters

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Recommended to book clubs by 1 of 1 members.

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"A Peak at Life's Journey"by Betsy O. (see profile) 03/27/18

We received this book from Book Movement's Giveaways. The book takes place in our hometown of Columbus, Ohio. It's the love story between a cantankerous 89 year old gentlemen and a spry
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