I don't remember if I shared my story. But....I was in the hospitial with Darcy. I believe it was her 7th or 8th day. She was admitted to ER at another hospital a week before with difficulty breathing. The immediate diagnoses was pneumonia. They had also tested her for Swine flu (it was at it's peak at the time). They couldn't help her much at that hospital (a year later, they closed the pediatric ward for inadequate care) and was transported to another, thank the Lord.

Fast forward to June 25th. I was at her bedside praying for her, because, as her doctor indicated to me earlier, she was literally "dodging bullets." We really didn't know if she was going to pull through (tearing as I'm writing this). My youngest son calls me to say Michael Jaackson has been admitted to the hospital and is in a coma. I remember being a little concerned but not overly because my own daughter was fighting for her life. As I tuned into the hospital tv, Darcy's nurse came in and whispered into my ear (there was another young child sharing a room with cystic fibrosis AND pneumonia along with her parents) that Darcy had contracted Swine Flu! It took a whole week for the results to come in. Needless to say, they move her out of the room so fast I didn't know what was happening. That poor CF baby. I hope she was okay.
Later we found out 2 close friends of ours ended up catching that blasted flu from Darcy; one of them being our pastor's wife. And she has Lupus!




Anyway, back to Michael. Darcy ended up staying in the hospital another week and thankfully, recovered. We were home by July 7th, the day of the memorial service. We sat and watched it together. By this time, the enormity and reality of it had just settled in with me. As soon as I heard the first note of "Going to See the King," I broke down. You know the kind of cry where you can't catch your breath? My daughter couldn't understand the overwhelming sadness of it all. My husband called me from the set. I think they had stopped taping for a while. He was watching it from his dressing room. He began to cry "I can't believe this, I can't believe this. It's so sad!" We were both doing some heaving crying.

The following days, weeks, month, year. I purchased everything I could get my hands on. Amazon and I became best friends. My first purchase was the Ultimate Collection. You should see it now. It stays in my glove compartment, all battered, and tattered and torn (the cover, not the 5 CD's and 1 dvd!). My family thought I was possessed and obsessed, but I didn't care. My house remained unkept, spent hours into the early morning on you tube and Amazon forums (where I met you guys, thankfully), and every other word or thought was Michael Jackson.

I've learned and continue to learn about this imperfect, flawed, eccentric, shy, lonely, loving, intelligent, compassionate, caring, inspiring, gifted, talented, funny....man.

And did I say, thank you all for being here?