One Last Dance: It's Never Too Late to Fall in Love (eBook, ePUB)

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A story about finding love at any age, One Last Dance is the delightful tale of Morgan, aged 89, and Dixie, 79, two "mature" individuals on seemingly divergent paths. Despite their disastrous first meeting, complete with a dropped birthday cake, broken eyeglasses and insulting remarks, it was obvious to bystanders, even then, that the two were fated for each other. Written with great humor and a deep understanding of the challenges associated with aging in America, One Last Dance is a joy to read and an inspiration to all generations, reminding us to live every day and always be in search of new experiences, regardless of age. Author Mardo Williams lived that philosophy, by writing this, his first novel, at age 92. At the tender age of 88, when many people would be content to sit back and reflect; Williams began a brand new chapter in his professional life. After over six decades as a journalist, many of those with the Columbus Dispatch, Mardo decided to write his first book, based on stories he'd been telling for years. The result was Maude (1883-1993): She Grew Up with the Country, a loving, humorous and meticulously detailed biography of his mother, an extraordinary woman who experienced our country's immense growth and changes for over a century, until her death at the age of 110. The book, published in 1996, found great success, propelling author Williams into the public arena. Maude is still a favorite among discussion groups and has been adopted as a supplemental text in many college American History courses. Next, after penning a whimsical book of children's stories, Great Grandpa Fussy and the Little Puckerdoodles, Mardo began something completely different-a novel-and One Last Dance was born. One Last Dance follows the relationship of Dixie and Morgan, as they begin to date and ultimately decide to move in together-for convenience only, they agree. But the relationship changes and strengthens as the couple unites to combat illness, scandal and a near-fatal accident. It's also a tale about how insecurities, humiliations and fears, thought long past, can haunt a person throughout their days. Dixie fears intimacy. Morgan has concealed important details about his divorce, his estranged children, and his lost job. And all the while, a mysterious intruder lurks, bent on vengeance for past wrongs. He invades their lives, exposing their most intimate secrets and lies. As Mardo completed the first draft of One Last Dance, his health was failing and his eyesight was all but gone due to macular degeneration. He made his daughters, Kay and Jerri, promise to finish the book if he could not. He died at age 95. Honoring their father's wishes, daughters Kay, a writer, editor and actress in New York, and Jerri, a former master English teacher, editor and writing teacher, began the often painful undertaking of finishing their father's work. Four years later, One Last Dance was published. On October 21, 2001 Williams became the first posthumous recipient of an Ohioana Library Award for his body of work as an author and journalist. One Last Dance won a 2006 Independent Publishers Book Award, and was a finalist in the National Readers' Choice Award. Mardo's daughters, Kay and Jerri won a 2009 Ohioana Library Award for "unique and outstanding accomplishment in writing and editing" for finishing One Last Dance. "Williams' writing shows a ready wit, and neither Dixie nor Morgan is spared from comic consequences. In the first scene, Dixie gets creamed with a birthday cake; later, Morgan finds himself wiping a guest's spilled wine with a pair of Dixie's lace-trimmed underpants. One Last Dance is charming and touching." Barbara McIntyre, Akron Beacon-Journal "Williams and his daughters have achieved a thing of beauty. Do yourself a favor, snuggle up in a chair and enjoy this magnificent hallmark of senior romance." Debra Kiefat, ArmchairInterviews.com

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Mardo Williams' story is right out of the pages of Horatio Alger whose books he read as a young boy. Alger's heroes valiantly overcome poverty and adversity and this seems to be exactly what he did. He grew up on a 100-acre subsistence farm; serendipitously--after he lost his job at the Kenton, Ohio car shops because of the Depression--he answered an ad and became the only reporter at the Kenton News-Republican, a small Ohio daily. (He'd always had an inclination to write.) He had no college degree but while he'd been cleaning out the insides of the smokestacks of the locomotives up in Toledo, he'd taken two courses at the business school there, shorthand and typing, and so he was prepared to be a reporter. He did all the beats, hoofed it around the small town of Kenton digging up stories on slow news days.

Nineteen years later, after World War II ended, the Columbus Dispatch recruited him to the copy desk. He moved up the ranks from the copy desk to travel editor . . . and in 1954 he was asked to develop and write stories about the world of business. Columbus was booming at this time. Mardo, familiar with pounding the pavement to search out stories, did just that. Within the year, he was writing a daily business column with byline.

After he retired from the Dispatch in 1970, he freelanced for several years, editing a newsletter and doing publicity. He began his second career, writing books, at age 88, after his wife died after a long illness. At his daughters' urging, he learned to use a computer and began writing his first book, Maude. It was about his mother, who lived to be 110, and also about life at the turn of the century when everything was done arduously by hand. This was to be for family, but his daughter Kay read a few sections to her writers group. They loved it, and wanted more.

The manuscript grew from 50 pages to a 334 page book with a 32 page picture insert. The finished product was published in 1996, Maude (1883--1993): She Grew Up with the Country. It has been adopted by some college American history classes as a supplemental text "to put a human face on history."

Then Mardo wrote an illustrated children's book, Great-Grandpa Fussy and the Little Puckerdoodles, based on the escapades of four of his great-grandchildren. He decided at age 92 that he would try something completely different--a novel, One Last Dance. His magnum opus.

He spent three years writing the first draft while tour...