The Last Slow Dance

In 1987, the brilliant filmmaker Bonnie Klein (Not a Love Story, Speaking Our Peace), suffered a catastrophic stroke that left her paralyzed and on a respirator. Slow Dance is the candid, moving account of her fight back – relearning to swallow, to talk, to stand, and to adapt to life with a disability. An inspiring book with the pace of a thriller, it is also from first to last, a remarkable love story. Every year, stroke hits nearly 50,000 Canadians; over 14,000 die. It is the number-one cause of serious adult neurological disability, the fourth most common cause of death. Bonnie’s story began when she became weak and nauseous after a summer day outdoors. When she also began to stagger and slur her speech, her husband Michael, a physician, raced her to hospital. Two weeks later, she suffered a second, nearly fatal, stroke. Then 46, she spent seven months in hospital, and over two years in conventional and self-created rehabilitation. Michael stayed alongside her, acting as husband, doctor, nurse, advocate – even dancing partner, as Bonnie “graduated” from bed to wheelchair to walking with support. As soon as she could wield a pencil, she began to chronicle her recovery, and the tremendous adjustments she and her family have had to make in a world still largely ignorant of its disabled population. This is an unforgettable story of honesty, courage, and intelligence that is as gripping as it is informative and illuminating.

Mary Livingstone was elected Freshman Queen in High School but her father never showed up to dance the last slow dance with her. She was standing on the dance floor under the lights with her head down not knowing what to do, when the leader of the band stepped off stage and took her hand in his and he danced with her. After high school, Mary travels in an old VW bug collecting stories of others because she needs something to believe in. She ends up back in her hometown 17 years later to interview a man named Michael McCain. They fall in love. As their relationship grows, Michael realizes he was the guy in the band who danced with her...and now he has to tell her before it's too late. Maybe she has found something to believe in after all?

THE STORY: As the curtain rises, a poor, dusty shop with its dirty window obscuring the dark hos-tile night, with its mean little counter, and with its juke box glaring vulgarly from the side, the storekeeper is taking inventory. The door is flung

A series of whimsical essays by the New York Times "Social Q's" columnist provides modern advice on navigating today's murky moral waters, sharing recommendations for such everyday situations as texting on the bus to splitting a dinner check.

Slow Dance with Sasquatch is an invitation into a private ballroom, a banquet hall in the middle of the woods. Here, you will sit and feast and waltz with your monsters. Here, you will harvest imagination from loneliness and longing. Here, you will coax laughter from the beasts’ mouths. Here, the table is always fully loaded. Here, the cake is always warm, and no matter how much of it you eat, you will never stop being beautiful.

As an author and therapist who works with couples to find real love, I've always been intrigued by the love story in Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller. Francesca Johnson found her true self with Robert Kincaid. Why, I wondered couldn't Francesca take that true self back to her marriage instead of letting it go? The Last Slow Dance explores real authentic love that is deep and real and you get to keep it until you draw your last breath. I always ask my clients the dream question, "What would your life be like if you woke up tomorrow and all your dreams had come true?" The answer is "The Last Slow Dance". How can you live a real-life fairytale? Search your heart and read The Last Slow Dance to find out how. It's really easier than you have ever dreamed. So I ask, "What will you do when your fairy tale comes to you?" Mary Livingstone writes, "I wandered the world searching for something to believe in. I never stopped to think maybe I already had it. All it took was seeing things in a different light. I owe most of this story to you, Michael..." After high school, Mary Livingstone spent 17 years on the road searching for something to believe in. It wasn't until she returned to her roots that she discovered that even after all these years, the best love stories begin and end at home.The Last Slow Dance revamped with a beautiful fairytale cover. It sold many print runs in its first iteration and was looked at for film representation.It takes place in beautiful Tryon, North Carolina known for its movie locations and beautiful countryside.

The hallways are empty, the school day long over, the din of lockers and youthful laughter have dissolved into silence. It's as if the very walls are waiting. And then through the intercom a song starts to crackle, the soundtrack of a forgotten life. And the band begins to sing - "Lovely Maggie falls for Johnny, a boy no one else can see. Heartthrob Johnny, 50s bad boy, trapped for eternity. Lonely boy and lonely girl, unsolved mystery. Maggie and Johnny, only highschool sweethearts, because Johnny can't ever leave. Do wop, Do wop....." In 1958, a rumble goes down outside the brand new high school in Honeyville, Texas. Chaos ensues, a life is lost, and Johnny Kinross disappears. But in 2010, someone finds him. Orphaned at the age of ten, 17-year-old Maggie O'Bannon finally finds a permanent home with her elderly aunt in a small Texas town. Working part-time as a school janitor, she becomes enmeshed in a fifty-year-old tragedy where nothing is as it seems and the boy of her dreams might vanish when the bell rings. This volatile and mismatched romance is doomed from its start, as Maggie struggles to hold on to yet another person she is destined to lose. Secret love and hushed affection are threatened by outside forces, resulting in a desperate race to keep a secret no one would understand. Deeply romantic, funny and tender, Slow Dance in Purgatory captures the heartache of a love story where a happy ending might be decades too late.

What will you do when your fairy tale comes to you? Mary Livingstone writes, "I wandered the world searching for something to believe in. I never stopped to think maybe I already had it. All it took was seeing things in a different light. I owe most of this story to you, Michael..." After high school, Mary Livingstone spent 17 years on the road searching for something to believe in. It wasn't until she returned to her roots that she discovered that even after all these years, the best love stories begin and end at home....

SLOW DANCING THROUGH THE FINAL YEARS is a feel good story about the joys of leading a loved one through the many stages of a degenerative illness, such as Alzheimer's, Muscular Dystrophy, Parkinson's, or a stroke. It is a chronicle advancing the idea that caring is joy, that slow good-byes are not all bad, and that life's greatest reward is the giving of one's best love. It is an inspirational self-help guide, offering pathways of discovering one's own personal growth in the process of caring for a loved one with an illness that chips away at their life, little by little each day. This story is about a mother who had a twenty year walk with Alzheimer's. The author, her daughter, imparts her very happy and active life during her years of part-time care for her mother and offers her method of segregating time for each of her life's demands. The underlying theme is: "Make lemonade with lemons". SLOW DANCING offers enlightened options for the caregiver to investigate and choices to consider. For many it seems like a long dark tunnel, but this book offers them encouragement and a glimpse of the bright light at the end of the tunnel.