Teen learned his great-grandma had never attended high school prom — his one simple question left her surprised
Most high school students dream about the perfect prom and how it would be. Unfortunately, many of them do not get to live that dream. 89-year-old Delores Dennison was one of those people, as she did not get to attend her high school prom due to financial constraints. Her family only had money for necessities at that time, and prom would have been an extra expense. However, the 89-year-old could not have imagined that she would go to a prom at her age with heart trouble and a stroke. It became possible only because of her great-grandson, per Fox News.
Dennison had once dreamed of wearing a beautiful dress, promenading through balloons and dancing to Frank Sinatra's "How I Love the Kisses of Delores," something that her late husband always sang to her. But she had long given up on the dream until her then-19-year-old great-grandson, Austin, called her before his prom. A senior at Parkway High School in Rockford, Ohio, Austin had a small request that would make her dream come true. "I asked her if she would be my prom date. How cool would it be to take my great-grandmother to prom?" he revealed. Dennison was quite surprised at the unusual proposal from her great-grandson, who played for his school's football, baseball and basketball teams, played in the school band and regularly attended church.
"He was so sweet and adamant about it. I asked him, 'But are you sure that you wouldn't like to take one of the young ladies who could get out there and do everything with you?' He said no. 'I want you,'" Dennison recounted. "I couldn't disappoint him – if I had to go on my hands and knees." Austin got the idea from his economics teacher's older brother, who had taken his grandmother to prom. Also, he knew that his great-grandmother did not get to go to her prom. "At first, she was a bit resistant. I assured her I was serious, and she finally said yes. It was my privilege to take her." Then, the duo set out to find the perfect dress for Austin's "Grandma DD."
It was a lot of work as fashion seemed to have changed from how it was in the 1930s. But Dennison eventually found a perfect blue dress and took a clutch purse to carry her necessities. "The purse was for my necessities – my nitro and my puffer that I use for breathing." Austin presented his great-grandmother with a beautiful pearl necklace and took her to the local Bob Evans for dinner. A place that also happened to be her favorite. He ordered pancakes, and Dennison ordered an omelet but had to take some of it home. They went to his high school after that. "We got a standing ovation. But we had to cut across the dance floor because she didn't have enough energy." The great-grandmother had a great time at the prom and expressed that all the teenagers were very polite to her.
About Austin, she said, "He was a perfect gentleman. He was everything you would expect of a young man." To make her evening even better, he took his Grandma DD to dance with him as the band played her favorite Frank Sinatra song. "I chose that song because Grandpa Ed used to sing that song to her. We shared that dance. It was really sweet."