Belle of the Ball

Jersey #2 occasionally participates in some publicity work for the American Heart Association. We joke that she is the cutest face of heart disease...

I was contacted by her cardiology nurse a few weeks ago, asking if I would be a guest speaker for the upcoming Heart Ball. This is a fancy fund raising event. Donations go toward programs and research for children, specifically. The local chapter of the AHA needed a parent to share the story of their heart disease survivor child. I am not a fan of public speaking, even though I am a fan of talking about my children. I cautiously agreed. I felt much better about the decision after speaking to the event organizer. It turns out that the original speaker backed out, and so did the replacement speaker, so they were quiet relieved that I would agree to fill the void and help them out. I was relieved to hear that my role was to speak for 4-5 minutes, sharing Jersey #2's story, while a slide show of pictures of her flashed on a screen behind me. My speech was a very small part of the program, which also included speeches by a cardiologist and a neurosurgeon, a silent as well as a live auction, a dinner, and a band. My only other problem is that this was a "black tie" event, and we did not have appropriate attire.

The Referee was so relieved that I did not pressure him to attend the ball with us, that he happily supported us buying new dresses and shoes for the event....and volunteered to stay home with the younger kids. I asked for an additional ticket for Jersey #1, because I just knew that dressing up like a princess and attending a ball would be very fun for her.

The older girls and I enjoyed going out to the mall to shop for dresses. Jersey #2 picked her dress immediately, but agreed to try on a few more dresses to please me. She went with her first choice. Jersey #1 tried on every single dress in her size, in every color available. She had a hard time deciding on which to choose, so Jersey #2 and I had to nudge her toward the one we liked best.

The girls and I also shopped for fancy shoes, nail polish, and lip gloss. I had planned to take them for manicures and pedicures, but Jersey #2 was so nervous about the idea, that we dropped it to eliminate the stress. In the end, we had more fun with me trimming and painting their nails the evening before the event.

Our beautiful teen babysitters came over in the afternoon to fix up the girls' hair. They planned the hair dos in advance, talked about them for a week, and brought fresh flowers to put in their hair. The teens just came from a wedding, so they were dressed up fancy too. It was so delightful to see this big sister/little sister duo fix up the hair of my own big sister/little sister duo.

We had a brief photo session after our princesses were dressed for the ball...

The girls turned heads the moment we walked in to the hotel ballroom. The staff from the American Heart Association greeted us with great cheer. We were introduced to a few key folks at the event. It was entertaining to be in a room filled with successful cardiologist and neurosurgeons, their lovely wives, executive folks from hospitals and insurance companies, as well as board members of the AHA....yet Jersey #2 stole the spotlight and kept it for the entire evening. She was more interested in the menu and the table decorations than she was in their names and credentials.

The girls could hardly wait to sit at the table and check out all of the parts of the place settings. That was a lot of forks! They got to drink water out of wine glasses! I let them start eating their salad a little early, so I could school them a little more about princess etiquette at fancy dinners.

There was a wedding reception taking place in the ballroom adjacent to the room we were in. Their wedding-polka music was so loud that it disrupted some of the early speeches. It made a great ice breaker, through. Shortly after I was introduced to the stage, the wedding music ended, and I had everyone's full attention. I was quite surprised by how much Jersey #2's story and pictures captivated the audience. This group of folks experiences such things from a business or career standpoint, so Jersey #2 instantly brought a personal component to their work. At the end of my speech, Jersey #2 joined me on stage. She smiled and waved, and literally stole the hearts of the crowd.

I enjoyed the fancy dinner, but the girls were not impressed. The waiter asked if they might like a fruit cup instead of the salmon. They ate their salad, devoured the fruit cup, and cheered at the sight of the dessert, which was some sort of cake/cheesecake combination with berries in it. They had a second helping from the bread basket too.

At the end of the program, Jersey #2 was called back on stage to receive flowers. It was a surprise to her, and she was thrilled...

Folks started approaching our table just to meet Jersey #2 and her big sister. The girls received numerous compliments on their beauty, their dresses, their smiles, and Jersey #2's amazing recovery. Her chest wound was slightly visible under her dress, so many folks told us if they shared a scar like that too.

While the band was setting up, Jersey #2 decided to start dancing on her own. She was too nervous to go out on the dance floor in front of the stage, so she twirled around on the floor near our table. The Emcee of the event soon joined her. He is also a heart disease survivor, a member of the AHA Board, and often does publicity work for them. He shared Jersey #2's zest for life...

When the music started, The Emcee and Jersey #2 tore up the dance floor! That was an incredible amount of energy from two heart disease survivors. Jersey #1 was more shy and nervous, so I had to practically drag her to the dance floor to get her to take that leap. She quickly warmed up, dancing with me first.....then joined her sister, the Emcee, and another man who had been sitting at our table. The girls danced and twirled for every song, while I chatted, back at the table, with the 2nd man's wife. It turns out that he is also on the Board for the AHA, and is an executive with an insurance company. His wife says that even though they attend many events like this, he is not usually much of a dancer. I am guessing that is part of why he wanted to dance with Jersey #1....he could relate to her desire to have fun, but her fear of getting out there on the floor.

After they wore out the gentlemen, my princesses continued to dance with each other...

We had a blast. We did not get home until 10pm. Jersey #2 was quick to tell everyone that she was getting to stay out WAY past her bedtime. The event organizer asked if she could call us for other fund raising events. It will be interesting to see what publicity adventures are in our future.