Elizabeth waited in the basement for her dance partner to arrive. “I never knew who would show up.” This time, it was Bern Putnam. “I had seen him around in rehearsals and hoped it would be him. He was a nice guy and he was good to dance with.” They stepped onto the platform and rode it straight up to the main stage. “We danced, we lip-synced, it went perfectly.”

This was 1979, the Hallelujah Hollywood show at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Six nights a week, two shows a night and three on Saturdays. For the big finale Sigfried and Roy made an elephant disappear (Bern and Elizabeth know how.)

“You had to be 5’8, I’m only 5’4”. But the manager liked Elizabeth, so he let her audition. After all, she had been a professional dancer on Venezuelan TV. Of the 100 that tried out, she was one of the 13 picked. “Most of the dancers were European, I was the first black girl to dance with the white girls.”

Bern studied dance in San Diego. That’s where the Hallelujah Hollywood show people found him. They were looking for six more boys for the show. 100 tried out, and Bern got one of the parts.

The last show always ended at 2:30 a.m. Most of the dancers lived fairly close. Elizabeth would ride her bicycle through the back alleys behind the casinos to get home. “I wouldn’t do it now.” Bern saw her one night, he pulled over and offered her a ride. The dance was underway.

They spent six more years in Vegas, moving in together after the first year. It was a busy time. Bern danced in three other major shows. Elizabeth got a part in the movie Electric Horseman, after auditioning for Robert Redford and Jane Fonda.

Fast forward several years. Bern was now a practicing chiropractor, with a post-doctorate degree. He and Elizabeth had a new daughter, Alexa. They lived in Acton, Massachusetts, where Bern had grown up. It was a wonderful town, kids could play unattended and ride their bikes without helmets.

“Acton was not bigoted, but it was a white town and our daughter is a mixed girl. I remember her in my backpack at three years old, asking me ‘Daddy, how come all the kids are wearing pink?’ Surprised, I told her nobody was, and she replied ‘Yes they are, their faces.’ I realized she needed a more mixed culture, so we moved to the Virgin Islands. Where all of the girls in Alexa’s class were blonde!”

The Putnams lived in the Virgin Islands for 25 years and considered it home. Bern survived Dengue fever three times, once with Zika. When his platelets dropped below the mortality level, the CDC got involved to try to find out why he was still alive. Their conclusion: “You don’t die.”

Elizabeth taught Spanish and dance. She formed her own dance company of four and five year old girls.

Teenage Alexa liked risky sports, so the Virgin Islands Olympic Committee took her to Utah, where she qualified for the World Cup in skeleton - like luge, but head first.

In 1995 the islands were struck by Hurricane Marilyn, which happens to be Bern’s mother’s name. The Putnams were living in a house that was built into a very steep mountain. The front deck hung over a 40 foot drop. When the big winds hit they moved to the safest room and put Alexa, then seven, on a very heavy couch.

The house began to shake. Bern shouted, “Shit, the house is falling!” Elizabeth jumped on Alexa and Bern jumped on Elizabeth. The now fully occupied couch shot through the wall, out of the house, and off the front deck. The family hung on, all the way down the mountain - like luge, but couch first.

They were not seriously hurt but it was 9:30 at night. They had to climb back up in the dark, Bern with Alexa on his back, his fingers and toes clinging to the broken and vertical deck slats. They made their way up to the dirt road, now submerged. Neighbors took them in.

So often when I write these stories I think, who are these people, with their amazing lives and astonishing stories? How did they find their way to my muddy little Ned? Here’s how Bern and Elizabeth did it.

Alexa ended up at CU Boulder, where she recently earned her Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering. She married Ali Shilleh, who is working on his Ph.D. in biochemistry. Bern and Elizabeth came to visit them for Christmas 2016. They made a day trip to Nederland to see friends from the Virgin Islands.

“We never planned to move here, but it was beautiful, it was winter, and our friends were here.” That’s when they saw the house that is now theirs, with a For Sale sign out front. On the market for only three days, theirs was the 12th and winning bid (the other 11 wanted to turn it into an Airbnb. Sigh.)

Elizabeth works at Wings of Lace now, and teaches Spanish to three, four, and five year olds. Bern mans the front desk at the Nederland Community Center. They are nuts about their new grandchild, Zayta.

What’s next? Elizabeth knows: “After the COVID we’ll have a big party with Latin music, and we’ll dance.”

[BELLA LORENA: Sono pronto a ballare con te.]