“How do I look?” I asked Espy as I spun around in front of my floor length mirror in the pink Dirty Dancing dress I’d found at a resale shop. It was pale pink and had lots of layers of petticoat material to make the skirt stand out. It would look great when we were dancing.

“You look fantastic. Nobody will put you in a corner, baby,” she said with a big smile.

She knew I liked it when she referred to old movies. That was one of the things we shared in common, a l...