In the winter of 2009, I loaded everything I owned into the back of my jeep and moved to Durham. When I arrived at Mid-South Fencers’ Club, I walked down the stairs into the small basement training space on Broad Street. I saw our Head Coach, Jennifer Oldham, giving a lesson to this little old guy over in the corner. Up until this point, I had worked almost exclusively with kids, I didn’t have any context for working with adults, let alone “senior citizens”. Later on I asked Jen what was happening. She told me Vic was diagnosed with cancer and that he was taking fencing lessons as a way to move his body, but also to test out what he could do, and how he felt. It was a way for Vic to connect his powerful mind, and his body, to try and heal.