Brush with Greatness

Are you one of those people who seek out celebrities, politicians, anyone famous who gets within a hundred miles of your house?

Well, I'm not.

I worked for a lady once who had a photo of herself with George W. Bush. It was the only photo in her office. And she had a husband, two children and a grandson. I never knew what they looked like.

I once spent the day with Miss America.

But I didn't seek her out. She actually came to me.

I used to work for a hospital in El Dorado, Arkansas and when the new state-of-the-art Women's Center opened it doors it was imperative that it be a big event with a guest speaker. Naturally it should be a woman, preferably someone famous and preferably someone from El Dorado.

That trifecta turned out to be Donna Axum, Miss America 1964 who met all the criteria and she agreed to attend and to speak at the event.

The hospital administration needed someone to be her escort and I became the chosen one. I was actually flattered since I seemed to meet all the criteria for basically not being a typical Arkansan. Not that that's a bad thing, mind you.

So me and our escort (an El Dorado cop) met Miss America at the airport in the fancy car a local car dealership loaned us for the event. We took her to the nicest hotel in downtown El Dorado, waited while she did whatever she did to look even better, then drove her around all of El Dorado so she could reminisce. By the high school, by her old house, by the cemetery where her parents are buried, to coffee with an old friend, etc.

The next morning we (me and the cop) picked her up in our fancy car and brought her to the hospital where I kept up with her while she smiled, shook hands and toured the hospital. I held her coat with the fur collar while she gave her speech. I guess I could have tackled someone if they'd tried to grab her and our cop didn't get there in time. I didn't really have a rulebook for being a Miss America escort.

After the speech and the handshaking and the photo ops, me and the cop escorted her back to the little El Dorado airport. We were both a little sad to see her go. I guess we must have bonded in that day and a half. She wrote both of us a little note on our handouts from the hospital event and signed her name/autograph.

Yeah, she was crowned Miss America when I was just a toddler, but it was obvious she was still just as poised and maybe even more beautiful. In the souvenir picture the cop took of me and her, she looks a whole lot better than me.

Unfortunately I don't have that souvenir photo here with me in Belgium, but if you're wondering what she looked like that day. . .

Not bad, huh?

So the cop took me back to the hospital in the fancy car and that was that. My brush with greatness, so to speak.

I've never sought out the chance to lay eyes on someone famous. We've had a few over the years like when we stayed in the Fairmont Hotel in Vancouver one time. We wondered who all the men in black wearing shades were. Turned out the Prime Minister of Canada was staying there too. As far as I know we never saw him although I wouldn't know him if I did see him.

But in the potential souvenir photo op, I might have looked better than him.