When Marci Robertson found her mother’s old cowgirl boots, she hesitated to wear them.
They were a special pair — not only because they belonged to her mother, but because they were also signed by country star Sammi Smith. Robertson’s mother got the signature when she worked at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
For several years the boots sat in the back of Robertson’s closet. Then one day, she found a reason to start wearing them: dancing.
Robertson, a bus driver for 25-plus years, started taking dance lessons around four years ago. She’s learned many moves since, but she says her boyfriend has taught her much of the Western dancing she knows today. They met after she got divorced, when a necklace he made at a Renaissance fair fatefully ended up around her neck.
She wore the boots on their first date, and they have been a dancing couple ever since.
“I think my mom would be really happy to know that I’m wearing them and dancing,” Robertson says. “She loved to dance. I think about her every time that I wear them.”
Written by Samantha Carrizal.