Roseland woman has the time of her life at her first formal dance

AARON LEE / Lynchburg News & Advance
Published: March 1, 2008

Slideshow: Lynn's First Dance

The first formal dance of Lynn Hudson's life started at 6:30 p.m. last Saturday.

Hudson had her makeup on by 3 p.m.

"I was thinking, 'this is going to be an unbelievable party,'" Hudson, 27, said as she sat waiting at the kitchen table in her Roseland home. "This is going to be a blast."

At around 5 p.m., Hudson went into her room to put on the lime green skirt-suit she and her mother, Joanne Brown, recently picked out at JC Penney.

A car ride to Lovingston later, and the tiara-crowned Hudson was the first person up the red carpet and into the first "Winter Ball" at Horizon House.

Hudson comes to Horizon House five days a week. It's there that the staff works with her and the dozens of other disabled adults that walked into the ball almost an hour later.

"Look at all the glamour pouring in," Horizon program manager Cynthia Larsen said as a flood of people in donated suits and dresses entered.

Lauren LaMesa works at Horizon, where members are taught life skills and take on swimming, bowling and beach trips.

"Everybody loves to dance and get dressed up, so it all came together," LaMesa said.

It also seemed natural to the other Horizon House members who decorated the ballroom that doubles as a dining hall.

It's at Horizon House where Hudson met E.C. Perdue, who was donning a tuxedo that day and the one who brought a corsage to slip over Hudson's painted press-on nails.

Perdue calls Hudson his fiancé. Hudson calls him her boyfriend. Regardless, Hudson is the first one to stuff a ballot with her and Perdue's name on it in box marked for king and queen of the ball.

Joanne Brown never got to go to her own prom. Seeing her daughter out onto the dance floor was a photo-op before she set the camera down and joined in.

The wallflowers were few as music from Beyonce to the Glenn Miller Orchestra played. The conga line that eventually erupted had at least two-dozen links.

And while Hudson walked away from her first dance crowned as the ball's queen alongside the king, Perdue, it was also an evening of firsts for other Horizon clients like Virginia Hartless.

"This is the first time I've had on a dress in 20 years," she said.

Lee is managing editor of The Nelson County Times.