![\"Len](\"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Screen-Shot-2023-04-25-at-11.59.46-AM-e1682449366323.png\")
<\/a>Len Goodman.<\/p><\/div>\n
His very recent ill health had never been reported.\u00a0 So when I woke-up on Monday morning, and saw that a friend, who has worked on that show, was sharing a little personal story of Len on Facebook, my heart stopped. But then I assumed\/hoped it was a tribute to Len for leaving the show. With great trepidation I scrolled down and, with incredible sadness, read the words \u201cRest In Peace.\u201d Not believing that horrible news, I quickly researched it. And I felt sick to my stomach when I saw it confirmed.<\/p>\n
It turns-out that Len had been diagnosed with bone cancer just a few weeks ago, and it was so bad that he went into hospice pretty quickly. But he and his family kept it private.<\/p>\n
For most of these years, Len Goodman had been the Head Judge on both\u00a0DWTS<\/em>\u00a0here in America and on\u00a0Strictly Come Dancing<\/em>\u00a0in England. So the poor man, who\u2019s not a youngster, had been flying back and forth across the pond twice a week! That\u2019s way<\/em> too much for\u00a0anyone<\/em>!<\/p>\n So his death at this time is an extra<\/em> shame because the reason he had quit\u00a0DWTS<\/em>\u00a0at the end of last season in late November was because he didn\u2019t want to leave England anymore\u2014he wanted to stay close to home to spend more time with his family and grandchildren.<\/p>\n Len Goodman in England.<\/p><\/div>\n In reading all the articles about the ballroom dance expert over the past two days, I\u00a0was shocked to learn that Len did not even begin dancing until he was twenty<\/em>!!!\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0ancient<\/em>\u00a0for a dancer! (I see videos day after day of little kids<\/em> who are already\u00a0accomplished in ballroom.)<\/p>\n And Len was a beautiful dancer. Every now and then, he did a little bit of Ballroom or Latin on the show, and it was perfection every time. His grace was a thing of beauty.<\/p>\n Besides the shock of it all, and his loss to the world, another reason his death is getting to me so much is that part of his story reminds me of that of my own father. My parents spent every summer in Aspen for the last two decades of his life. Perhaps because my mother was declared by many to be \u201cthe Poet Laureate of Aspen,\u201d the duo had become very popular with a lot of the young people around town, forming some very close friendships with a few of them. Colorado, in general, is known for it\u2019s difficult-to-breathe air due to the elevation of the state, and my father had to be on oxygen at night during what turned-out to be his final summer there.<\/p>\n So one day when I was staying with my parents, one of their young gal pals visited, and as she was leaving, my father said, \u201cI want to tell you good-bye, sweetheart; I won\u2019t be returning next summer.\u201d Chills went down my spine. (On a sidebar, the girl turned to my mother, and asked, \u201cSo I won\u2019t be seeing you anymore?,\u201d to which my independent little mo replied, \u201cOh no\u2014I\u2019ll<\/em>\u00a0still be coming to Aspen!\u201d My life flashed before me\u2014I would never be able to stay home in LA in the summers because I\u2019d have to spend one month in Aspen gallivanting around town with my mother, and one in Brooklyn entertaining my sure-to-be-lonely father.)<\/p>\n That proclamation to that one girl opened the flood gates\u2014my father then told everyone he knew at his home-away-from home goodbye forever. And then, just four moths later, he found-out he had lung cancer. We did at-home hospice for him, and he was gone a month and a half after that.<\/p>\n<\/a>