Last Updated
3/11/03
By Daniel Dullum
Spectrum staff writer
CARMICHAEL -- Looking into his wife Win's eyes, Wayne Lewis heartily concurs with a lyric made famous by soul singer Doris Troy in 1962 -- "All it took was just one look."
The twinkle in his own eyes says it all.
"The second I saw her, I didn't want to be just her dancing partner, I wanted to be part of her life!" Wayne Lewis said during a Tuesday afternoon dance at Mission Oaks Community Center. "Look around this room and tell me if you don't think she's the most beautiful thing on the floor! Wow!"
Taking his compliment in stride, Win Lewis laughed and said, "Meeting him here is like having a Cracker Jack box and reaching in and getting the gift that's inside!"
The Tuesday afternoon dances have been a weekly gift of pleasure at the Mission Oaks Community Center since the center opened in 1982. Many single seniors have found new companions at the dances -- Wayne and Win Lewis, both 87, of Citrus Heights among them.
"My first husband passed away in 1981. A girlfriend and I came over here to dance," Win Lewis remembered.
Wayne Lewis interjected, "I didn't walk up to you and say, 'May I have this dance?' I walked right up to her and asked, 'Would you marry me?' She said, 'Are you crazy?'"
"A neighbor lady had her eye on him," Win Lewis continued. "She said, 'Wayne, I want you to get dressed up and come to the dance.' He said, 'I don't want to go.' She said, 'You're going if I have to drag you!'
"He danced a couple of dances with her. I came in late and pretty soon Wayne comes up, very gentlemanly, and asked me to dance. I said sure. We get out on the floor and he asks me to marry him! I said 'Who let you out?'"
Win advised Wayne to meet a few more ladies, but the former Navy commander and aviator wouldn't waver.
"The minute I saw you, I wanted to marry you and take care of you for the rest of your life," Wayne told her.
"I don't need taking care of," she responded. "I've been doing pretty good so far."
Over time, the two became better acquainted and continued to meet at the Mission Oak dances.
"We made a date to go out to dinner and I could see his good qualities. ... Every time he'd see me, he said, 'I want to marry you.' I told him I was having too much fun being single!"
Eventually, Wayne Lewis' persistence began to pay off.
"I got to thinking, 'What have I got to lose?' So we got married on Valentine's Day 11 years ago," Win Lewis said. "And we come here to dance three times a week. This is our social life, and going to our church."
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