Prom season is in full swing in South County. Though typically reserved for high school upperclassmen, a different group of seniors took to the dance floor on April 17 at Cedarhurst of Tesson Heights for the senior living community’s second annual prom.
“We try to make living here at the Cedarhurst community like a home. If you’re in your home, you go out and you go to dances and you go to parties, so we try to bring that to them so they can still have those experiences,” Debra Leland, the Life Enrichment Director at Cedarhurst of Tesson Heights, said.
To make the evening extra special, Leland covered the community in decorations and rolled out a red carpet. Betty Mueller, a resident of Cedarhurst of Tesson Heights, was the first to make an entrance, as the event was in part centered on her wish to attend a dance. Mueller was a recipient of Cedarhurst’s Dream Come TRUE program — an initiative to make residents’ lifelong wishes a reality.
“Prom seemed like the perfect opportunity to make her feel like the movie star of her dream,” Leland said.
Mueller was given a blue ’50s-style dress, gloves, pearls and a hat for the occasion. She even got her hair, nails and makeup done, an experience she thoroughly enjoyed.
“She wanted a blue dress, because that’s her favorite right now,” Mueller’s daughter, Theresa Kannawarf, said. “This was her very first prom and it was the first time she ever had her makeup done. We were at Ulta, and while they were doing it, she goes, ‘This just feels so good.’ It was like getting a massage on your face.”
When it was time for the dance, Kannawarf gave her mom a corsage before dropping her off, laughing that the two had reversed roles.
“I got to be a parent this time. I got her all ready and then dropped her at the prom, left, and then came back to help her,” Kannawarf said.
Mueller has long loved dancing, even having won a twist contest back in the day. She shared that she still listens to music and dances daily. Her favorites include Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson.
“If I hear music and you’re with me, if you want to run, you can because I’m going to dance,” Mueller said.
“One of the guys told her, ‘Honey, you still got it,’” Kannawarf added.
