First off, sorry it has taken me so long to get this on the page
for everyone to see.
Jet lag you know. It's amazing how 48 hours in the Big Apple can
be so draining.
That and the fact that American Airlines feel the shortest distance
between
Vancouver and New York is via Dallas/Fort Worth.
After the jumping all over the hotel room beds in excitement we
got it together and
thought it would be fun to spend the evening laying tourist in
Times Square. Good
idea! Not two minutes after buying our first I (heart) NY t-shirt
I took a second
glance and said " Hey, isn't that Kevin?". Indeed it was, and
AJ right beside him.
They were very sweet, chatted for a bit and agreed to pose for
pictures.
All we got scoop-wise was that they have been rehearsing like
crazy for the new
tour, and can't wait to get back to Europe.
Monday we shopped and shopped and then we shopped some more. That
night we
had dinner upstairs in our hotel. Big Mistake. It was a great
view from a revolving
restaurant, the Empire State Building, the Chrysler building,
the East River and all
the lights of the city... They weren't so shiny though once we
got our bill. $3.50
each for a glass of Diet Coke and Lavonne's sister Marnie and
I paid $8.00 for our
cocktails! That's American too!
Tuesday was the big day!! The girls bolted off to get a good seat
for the
performance at the Virgin store, and I headed off to the press
conference. What a
blast. So much excitement, so many flash bulbs! Reporters from
Holland,
England, France, Spain, Germany, the US and Canada. I can't believe
the guys
weren't blinded. I sat right by Rick the Temp from Much Music,
and it was very
funny watching him try to be one of the BSB. My question wasn't
quite as funny,
but just as important. Before I left, I received a letter from
Leesa Barbon from
Maple Ridge B.C. Canada asking me to deliver it to the Boys. I
knew I couldn't
get it into their hands so I thought I would read it too them.
Here's a bit of how it
went....
Dear Kevin, Howie, Nick, AJ, and Brian,
...I am writing this letter to thank-you. When you were
in
Vancouver for your show you met 2 very special girls backstage,
Shelly and Theresa Guenther. At the time Theresa was dying
of a
brain tumour. Theresa spent the last year of her life fighting
cancer. She had all the chemo treatments and thought her cancer
was gone. Theresa was so excited to be going to the show,
but
about 3 weeks before she found out it was back and there was
nothing the doctors could do, she didn't have much time left.
She
said there were two things she wanted to do before she passed
away, be able to go to the concert, and to live to see her 14th
birthday. Arrangements were made and Theresa managed to get
backstage. You took time out of your busy schedule to spend
time
with two girls who you didn't even know. To you it might have
been an everyday thing but you have no idea how much of an impact
you had on her. The only thing Theresa ever talked about until
the day she passed was how excited she was to have met you,
how
nice you were to her, that she felt like a princess. You made
her happier than anyone had seen her in a long time. Not just
Theresa but everyone who knew her. For her sister Shelly,
she
will always have the memory of seeing her sister smiling and
having a great time. Before Theresa died she got the two things
she asked for. She got to go to your concert and enjoy the
surprise of getting to meet you. And she had her 14th birthday.
Although she was alive on that day, she never woke. May 2nd,
1983 was the day she came into the world and May 2nd, 1997
was
the day she left. You have no idea how much of an impact you
had
on her and everyone that loved her.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Yours truly,
Leesa Barbon
When I looked up, Kevin and Brian were wiping tears from their
eyes, it made me
almost lose my composure. The room was very intense with emotion
so I finished
with..."Sorry, I didn't mean to bring everone down but when you
are doing 57
shows in 48 days and you wonder if the work is worth it, believe
me, it is. People
are really getting a lot from you. Thanks for listening". Howie
answered that they
were always glad to have the chance to work with charities and
were happy to hear
that their work matters.
After the crowd had dispersed and the guys had left to change
for their
performance, I was hanging around with the folks from Much Music
chatting
about what had happened when AJ saw me, came over, gave me a kiss
on the
cheek, a hug and said "thanks". Yes they are great guys!! Guys
with big hearts
who are having a lot of fun and enjoy their fans immensely.
The girls could not stop talking about how great the performance
was (the media
were not allowed in so I shopped some more!).
Once we wound down, we packed up our stuff and headed for the
airport. It was a
long flight back, arriving at the airport after 1:00 in the morning,
which was
4:00am New York time. It was nice to be greeted by Jenn and Emily,
BSB fans
who wanted to hear EVERYTHING! It got the adrenaline flowing again
but it sure
was nice to crawl under the covers.
The Big Apple was great, the Backstreet Boys even better, and
I wish I could have
taken every one of you with me!!
Thanks for taking the time to share in my tale...
Pam Stevens
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