Kim Mollica (May 1997)
Mark and Kim have two daughters, Alexandra and Nicolette (ages six and four). Here is Kim's especially touching recounting of Nikki's first recital (adapted from an e-mail sent on May 23, 1997).
Nikki has never done a recital before. Last year she got all dressed to do her gymnastics recital and dance, but never made it onto the stage - she just screamed so I pulled her from both. This year, however, she performed and was the hit of the show without doing anything.
She just kept telling me if the people laughed to tell them to stop. It is kind of hard to tell 300 people to stop laughting. Anyway she did her opening step fine, then when she grabbed her partner to do something, neither one of them remembered what to do, so they just kept shrugging their shoulders. The crowd was in a dull roar at this time.
When it was time to do a string of somersaults Nikki just shook her head "no" all the way down the mat with her head held high. When it was time to do her cartwheels she did the same thing; by now the crowd is in a very loud roar and she looks so scared. She walked on the beam, and walked through the hoola-hoops; she did not follow the routine. When at the end she finally did a bridge, the crowd went nuts and started cheering.
When it was time to do her vault all the little kids ran up to the vault and tried their damndest to get over, but not Nikki. She was last, and just walked to the vault. When she got to it, she shook her head "no" again - the crowd is stamping their feet they are laughing so hard. The teacher helped her up and when she jumped off Nikki threw her hands up in the twelve o'clock position like she did the best vault ever! The crowd was estatic by now.
After it was all over she came running to me and cried in my arms. She said, "I thought you were going to tell them not to laugh."
Anyway she was fine and jumped right back in to do the finale. It was a great show, and Mark loved it.