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I started swimming in November 2017 simply to get fit for a mad horseriding event in New Zealand.  I discovered that I actually enjoy it.  This comes from someone who previously chose all her sporting activities on the basis that they do NOT require a change of clothes! 

A friend suggested the open water event in June 2018 at Lake Windermere and I thought why not. 

So to make it a worth while venture and not just a private whim, I have decided to also raise money for Alzheimers.  I have had a few relatives suffering with some form of dementia in the past, and it is an illness that steals a person away, like a death, but leaves the body still to be cared for.

DANCING SHOES (1) by Katherine Watts

She dusts off her dancing shoes in the attic of her mind

And slips them onto her feet

She points her toe admiring the line

Then rises and glides across the floor

Twirling in the dust motes of an earlier ray of sunshine

She gazes up at his loving brown eyes

His hand is firm in the small of her back

And they are dancing, dancing . . .

Just as the music is filtering through and filling up her senses

A voice calls her back to the present

She opens her eyes to a grim lounge chair

with someone offering some pills

She lips them from the stranger’s hand

And dribbling, sips from the glass

Then closing her eyes she is dancing again

Dancing, dancing . . .

Now in her mind’s eye she is gliding down the aisle

Drawn towards her lover, as she approaches

The guests melt away and they dance as if all alone

Wrapped in their love they need no one else

Twirling in the dust motes of an earlier ray of sunshine

She gazes up at his loving brown eyes

And she knows that for all eternity

They will be dancing, dancing . . .

A tear slips through her closed lids

It is gently blotted away

She wishes the hand was his but he’s been gone 20 years

All she has left is the certainty they will meet again

And in his arms they will be together

Twirling in the dust motes of an earlier ray of sunshine

She will gaze into his loving brown eyes

And they will dance together for all eternity

They will be dancing, dancing . . .

DANCING SHOES (II) by Katherine Watts

I wonder what she’s thinking, or is she even there

That husk of a lady sitting in that chair

Her eyes are always closed now as if she doesn’t wish to see

The place where she is living a place she doesn’t wish to be

Sometimes when I wake her there’s a brightness in her eyes

That quickly fades to blankness after showing some surprise

She takes whatever I feed her - docile to the last

Then shuts out the present and slips back to the past.

A tear tracks it’s way down a wrinkled, parchment cheek

I blot it with a tissue - she doesn’t even blink.

Her story is so sad it makes me want to weep

They say she had no children; her man was all she desired

Together they were magic, and their dancing was inspired

Her legs can no longer glide her across the ballroom floor

And he’s been dead for ages, twenty years or more

She was moved in here soon after by a cousin, I believe

She’s simply waiting for that moment when she finally gets to leave

When that moment is finally here there’ll be no one left to grieve

So I hope she spends the eons dancing with her man upon her sleeve.