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Meeting Melissa in Toronto 

On September 28, 2004, the day of Melissa’s concert in London, Ontario, I had a great idea.  Today was also the release day for Melissa’s new DVD, Lucky Live!   I mentioned to Golfie and Bitey about my idea to go to HMV on Yonge Street in Toronto and buy the new DVD that day so that I could try to have Melissa autograph it that very night.  They thought that my plan might just work, so we went to HMV and bought three DVDs, hoping we would all get lucky that evening!  Well, it just so happened that we did get lucky before the concert that night in London, and when Melissa’s tour bus pulled in, she stopped to sign the DVD for each of us!  We had a nice little chat and thanked her for signing the DVDs, and then she went in to get ready for the concert.  We walked away thinking how fortunate we were!  It was a great day!! 

We got home that night after the London concert (which was extraordinary, by the way!) and found an email from a guardian angel telling us that she had gotten us into a meet and greet with Melissa the following night (Wednesday) before the concert at Massey Hall in Toronto!  Golfie emailed her angel and told her that we felt somewhat embarrassed since we had just been lucky the night before, but if it were still okay with her, we would LOVE to be there!  

So we went to Massey Hall just before 7:00 p.m., the meeting time.  We met our angel at the box office, and Golfie asked her if she had gotten the email we sent.  She said yes, she had, but that it was still okay since there were already passes waiting for us at the box office.  We thanked her, and she told Golfie and I to wait right there and Melissa’s rep would be down to get us and take us back stage for the meet and greet.  We were given backstage stickers to place on our shirts, and our angel told us she would introduce us to Melissa as “members of Melissa’s fan club”!!  We wanted to get Bitey in too, but we couldn’t. 

Just before 7:00, Stephanie came outside to get us.  We filed in and climbed up the stairs to meet Melissa.  The winners of the VH-1 Save the Music auction and four or five others filed in behind us and were followed by the charming parents of Philip Sayce, who were also there to meet Melissa.  Philip grew up in Toronto, and this was a homecoming for him!  What was really cool about that was that Mark Browne and Kenny Aronoff came into the room to meet Philip’s folks!  I have never been to a Meet and Greet with Melissa where the members of the band appeared, so we were able to chat with Mark about the new DVD, which was our first conversation with him since the band arrived in Canada. 

Melissa arrived looking awesome in her red satin shirt and blue jeans, and she started talking to the people waiting to meet her!  She looked incredibly happy and excited about the show!  We overheard that over a hundred copies of the new DVD were sold at the concert in London the night before!  We also heard Melissa discuss a new song about Christmas in America ready for release. We didn’t hear when it would be released but we did hear someone say that he had heard it and he loved it and thought it would do great on the radio.  That’s all I know…well, except that I can’t wait to hear it! 

Melissa moved toward Golfie and I with sharpie in hand!  We had decided earlier that we weren’t going to ask for an autograph, since we had already been blessed with so much good fortune!  But we saw that Melissa was ready to sign, so who were we to say no?  We were introduced to Melissa as “members of your fan club” and Melissa looked at us and laughed as she recognized us from the Hamilton and London concerts and when she stopped to sign the DVD for Bitey and us the night before!  We hadn’t brought anything for Melissa to sign, so she signed our concert tickets, a super extra bonus for us!! 

As she was signing the tickets for us, we asked about her new TV sitcom.  The news about the show hit the airwaves late the night before.  She laughed and said that she had just completed the deal the night before with ABC and already everyone knew about it!  She told us that she really liked the idea of the show and that it would be what her life would have been like had she not been so successful in her career – had she stayed in Leavenworth.  We joked together about how life was all about timing and that we knew she had been waiting for something she really liked and she had finally found it!   She laughed and agreed, and we wished her good luck with the new show.  

We thanked her for everything and for playing “When You Find the One” for us the night before for our two-year anniversary.  We realized our time was up, and we walked away with our group, down the back stairs and into the cold night air!  We thanked our guardian angel profusely as we stood outside the stage door.  We were sad to leave the warmth of Melissa in Massey Hall, but we knew that the concert would be just as fantastic as meeting her that night.  

And it was!  Toronto was one of the best concerts I have seen, and you could feel the love!  Boardies lined the stage, and cards and confetti flew at just the right moment!  Melissa was vibrant and gorgeous, and her voice and guitar were incredible!  The crowd called for more, and she gave it to us!  We laughed…boy did we laugh!  [Thank you, Fidel!]  And we danced all night, and the fact that we had been so lucky made it even more unforgettable.  Thank you, Melissa, for this very special night, and thank you for this very special time in Canada.

Eagle Feather

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