In 1939, Helen Dannis longed to join her friends at their high school senior prom in West Warwick, R.I., but it was the end of the Great Depression and her family didn’t have money for a new dress or shoes, or even a lipstick.

"My father lost his job at the mill and my stepmother's salary from working at a department store was all the income we had," said Dannis, an only child whose mother died five days after childbirth. "So I missed the dance and stayed home."

Eighty years later, Dannis, 97, finally got the chance to make up for that missed night when her granddaughter, Julie Huddon, 48, presented her with a sparkling crown and a proposition earlier this spring: Let’s go to the prom.

Huddon, who lives in Warwick, invited Dannis with a handmade pink invitation in the shape of a heart.

“How could I say no to that?” said Dannis. “Of course, I said yes."

At 97 and 48, they were both a few years beyond the average age of prom goers. But Huddon’s 19-year-old son who attends the school would be there. And the Pilgrim High School principal thought it would be a hoot and agreed.

So on May 24, Huddon arranged for a trolley driver to pick up her and her grandmother, her son, Evan Huddon, 19, and two of his friends, and drive them all to the senior prom. Her son, who has spina bifida, enjoys dancing in his power wheelchair.

“To attend the prom with my great-grandson and my granddaughter made the night even more special,” Dannis said...READ MORE