Last Tuesday was just an amazing day. I didn’t have the stress of having to dance again. I was able to really accept everyone’s kind words. I had tried so hard not to cry the day before and of course I wept immediately after the dance. It was the most amazing day and I realized what a tribute my mother had. Everybody in America now knows who Mieke is. Everybody knows about this wonderful woman who was my mother, whose the reason really behind any success that I’ve ever had in my life, as a mother, as a wife, as a person and as an actress and I think now as a dancer. I just felt blessed.

When I was voted in to continue next week I was really excited. When I heard I was going to do the Viennese Waltz I was particularly excited because the waltz was my mother’s favorite dance. She just loved that. It was so romantic and it’s something I’m really excited about doing. Then I realized that when I would perform it on Monday, that would have been my mother’s 93rd birthday.

So I have to believe that my mother has timed everything and that she is going to be with me for that too. I think she is going to be with me for the rest of this competition. I’m clearly doing this in her honor and she has clearly given me the most extraordinary gift, which is to dance and to learn how to dance with this wonderful man Tony and to bring joy into my life and to really allow me to believe that age is not an issue, injuries are not an issue, that if you have it in your spirit and you want to express yourself through dance and you allow that spirit to move you, that you can find pure joy.

This is what my mother has given to me. This is her gift to me and it’s a gift that I’m going to share with her and that I want to share with all of you.