Full Country Weekly Article from offical fanclub

vprince · 01-27-2009

I thought I might share with you the whole story considering my original post was a summary that had a couple mistakes in it and I wouldn't want to mislead all you kind souls.

When Steve contacted me about the piece he told me he needed more info than what was there, I told him it all and he said write me everything as if you are writing an essay so I did. It is long you can read it if you wish, cause there is alot of details from that night that is not in the original, or the mag. So here it is:

First time fate and I met: I was napping while my daughter was, on the Wednesday before the concert and the phone would not stop ringing. So when it had rang long distance I was mad, and angrily answered HELLO, someone asked for me, I said this is, "Hi this is the Carrie Underwood Fan club calling to see if you would be interested in a Meet and Greet before the concert on Saturday"? I asked "what's that"? She told me and I said sure and she gave me my instructions. I never win anything. So this was cool considering I joined the fan club just to get presale tickets for good seats, and had never been on the site again until I got that call.

So I was last in the M&G line in Detroit on 10/04, and Matt comes down real late with a little extra someone, a little girl and her Aunt. The girl was so excited, I asked her if she wanted to go ahead of me, and they did. She was so cute jumping around asking Matt where Carrie was, and I bent down and asked her "are you excited to meet Carrie"? She said "yes are you"? I asked her what she was going to talk to Carrie about, she said "I don't know".

I had noticed that she had nothing for Carrie sign, I asked her "do you have something for Carrie to sign"? The Aunt said "no just the tickets". So knelt down again and asked her how old she was and her name and she said in a way too cute voice, "Hayley H-A-Y-L-E-Y (she had to spell it for me), and I'm four". I had brought my Carnival Ride cd jacket, so I said "Hayley would you like this page out of my cd book"? Her eyes were so big when she said "yes please". The manners on this little one just blew me away. "This is only a small picture of Carrie and her dog, his name is Ace but at least you'll have a picture", "then you can talk to her about, her dog". She then proceeded to talk cutely about what she thought Ace would be like, if was going to be in the room, and if he would be on stage with her. Then started playing hop scotch on the floor asking Matt to play with her.

Her Aunt was very appreciative while seeming to slightly tear up. She told me that Hayley was supposed to meet Carrie at MSU this past April. I told her I was at that concert and that it was my first Carrie concert and my nieces wanted to go but couldn't, and when I heard she was coming back on my niece's birthday that I brought her to the concert as her gift, she said "me too it's Hayley's birthday at the end of the month". (so we had something in common already) She then said "but it didn't work out with the Make A Wish Foundation, for the MSU concert", as Hayley has leukemia. My heart sank for that little girl in the cowboy hat, cute blonde curls hanging out and pink cowboy boots, with all that energy and excitement. So we had talked a little about it and she said that, that was what Hayley asked for from The MAWF, all she wanted was to go to a Carrie concert and meet her. But it wasn't The MAWF that made Hayley's dream come true believe it or not it was Carrie's bus driver. He is an acquaintance of a co worker of Hayley's grandmother (she is who they got the tickets from), so when the co worker heard that the tickets were going to Hayley she started to put things into motion to try and get Hayley to meet Carrie. They had received a phone call from Hayley's mother 30 minutes earlier saying "get to the will call there are Meet and Greet passes for you". Talk about getting down to the wire. Thanks to Hayley's grandmother's co worker and Carrie's bus driver, you may not know it but you both played and important role in this story surrounded by fate. That's why they were so late getting down there Carrie's "people" hadn't been notified yet. So there were about three more people before Hayley, Matt was still hanging out and talking with us and he told Hayley "if you come over here and look around the corner she is right there", and she did. Her aunt and I couldn't see yet, but Hayley looked and she covered her mouth with one had and you could hear her go "huh", she looked us and said "she's real pretty".

Now it was Hayley's turn, it was just them and me left, and there were only Carrie, Matt, the photographer and two others in the room. Once the last person started to leave, Carrie looked at her and she ran super fast to Carrie, who of course had the biggest smile knelt down and almost got knocked over, before giving her a very long tender hug. I didn't think Hayley was gonna let go. While she was hugging her the aunt was still beside me with a huge smile on her face, and it hit me Carrie doesn't even know why she is here, cause Matt never left Hayley from the moment he brought her down, to be able to tell her. I was almost crying and Carrie didn't even know about the cancer yet. So she talked to her and they took their picture. Carrie started to sign their tickets and Hayley gave her the pic and turn and pointed at me and told her I gave it to her, Carrie gave me a smile. I didn't realize it but I was in the same room with Carrie Underwood about to meet her, but all I found myself focusing on was Hayley, hoping that this was all she expected and more (she did get more). While Carrie was signing the Aunt started to tell her about the cancer and The MAWF. Now I had a huge lump in my throat. Carrie seemed to of paused with a gaze in her eyes for just a moment, and without missing a beat she went on with Hayley like she wasn't there because of the possibility of the inevitable. No sign of remorse or pity, she treated her like any other 4 year old, it was very thoughtful of her to treat her that way. I was really moved and impressed, my respect for Carrie just went right up.

Then as they are almost done Hayley notices a Little Mermaid bag on the autograph table and asks "what's inside there", Carrie looks in and says some letters, asking her do you like the Little Mermaid"? She said "yes", and Carrie said "I do too". When Carrie brought the bag down to Hayley's height and opened it, it started to play the tune from the movie, "Under The Sea", Carrie immediately started to dance and act silly, Hayley was laughing and dancing, then Carrie sang the whole song to her while they danced. Now I was crying. I remember Hayley looking at her and telling her "your silly". The song was done Carrie knelt down asked for one last hug, and said "so do you know the words to All American Girl"? She said "no, but I know Wasted". Carrie told her "you can't do that one". (many people laugh after I mention the Wasted remark, but if you know the song (which is my favorite as well, another thing in common) the chorus is actually motivational about not wasting any time while you have it, very fitting for Hayley's situation). So I knew what was coming cause I had seen her do it on youtube at previous concerts and I was nearly jumping out of my shoes waiting for Carrie to ask her, then she did "if I ask you to come on stage with me will you dance with me again and maybe you could say the words All American Girl when I tell you"? She of course said "yes". While Matt gave her aunt the instructions, cause he usually picks the child out of the audience to go on stage, Hayley was showing Carrie her necklace and had said her mom gave it to her. Then as they were leaving Carrie told her "I will see you on stage", Hayley turned around and adorablely said "see you on stage".

So while Carrie watched them leave and spoke to Matt for a second I was able to compose myself. Still dumb founded by all that had just happened I went up and the first thing I said was "that is one amazing kid", Carrie said "that's for sure". No disrespect to Carrie but I don't remember much about my own Meet and Greet, as I was so overwhelmed by all I had experienced already. When I got to the top of the stairs I saw Hayley and her aunt and uncle. I asked her aunt if I could talk to her. I knelt down and said "was that great or what"? "Yeah" she said. I continued "you are so lucky Carrie sang a song just for you, and I hear you get to go up on stage", she said "yes, are you gonna watch me", "yes and I'm going to take lots of picture's, good luck", and she thanked me again for the picture I gave her. I stood up and told the aunt how amazing that was and she thanked me again.

Little big town was halfway through their set, but I didn't care, I found my sister and nieces in the hall and she asked what took me so long, and I told her the whole story, well the main parts. So including my sister that means there were like 10 people in the building that knew Hayley's story.

I have to continue it in the next post cause it is too long sorry!!

vprince · 01-27-2009

So when it came time for Carrie to sing All American Girl, I thought to myself I just can't take only pictures after all that, so I decided to record it. Since only a handful of people knew the story behind Hayley being up there, I'm pretty sure people thought I was crazy cause I was crying while I recorded Carrie and Hayley. I was so impressed cause Carrie had remembered about the necklace and it was the first thing she mentioned to her, and of course Hayley used those amazing manners and thanked her. The next day when I watched the video back and still crying like it had just happened (I probably cried for two days after, every time I saw it), it got so much more meaningful. I found a closer clearer video and you could see Carrie give all her attention to Hayley she looks in her eyes the whole time. The way they danced together on stage was how they were dancing downstairs to the Little Mermaid bag, except Carrie was on her feet before. I just loved Hayley's enthusiasm say YEAH! But the best is if you watch closely was when Carrie lets her finish the song and Hayley is hitting the money note Carrie's got her hand in the air closes her eyes for a second then looks at Hayley with the most joyful of smiles. You know Hayley's dreams had all come true.

The next morning my husband said this a great story that should be shared. I had only been on the fan club site a couple of times previous, to find out about the Meet & Greets and I had read about a bunch of other fans experiences, there is a message board just for that topic. So I went to the computer and I posted a shorter story, and left my house while the video downloaded to youtube. By the time I got home the story had already been viewed over 150 times with lots of comments, and on youtube it had been hit over 300 times with many comments and private messages. I only wrote a brief not to descriptive comment about the video, but people viewing that had seen my post had start to tell about my story. Between the fan club and youtube it had just exploded. I could not keep up with the emails and comments. Now fate decides to step in again, as I am reading the youtube comments I see one that says "Thank you for all of you wonderful comments on this video. This is my daughter! I was so amazed to see it online, since her Aunt and Uncle took her to the concert so I missed the opportunity to see her on stage. So thank you so much for sharing the video online". Then I noticed I had a private message and it was from Hayley's mother Katie thanking me and requesting a copy of it. As I go back to the fan site I see another comment that catches my eye "Thank you for sharing my daughter's story with all of the fan club. I saw the video on YouTube and since I could not be at the concert I was so glad that you shared it. Thank you for making my day and for saying such nice things about Hay!" Katie went and joined the fan club after she saw the youtube video.

Here comes fate again showing its face, I'm listening to the radio while on the computer two days after the concert and to my surprise the DJ starts telling my story and tells people to check it out on the stations website and to check out the video as well. I flip to the other local country station and with in an half hour that DJ say the same thing. Both station mentioned it at least once every hour for the next two days, that was cool.

Katie and I traded emails and I had asked if I could have her number cause there was so much more to share with her than what was in my post, and she gave it to me. We talked for over an hour, forget the long distance charges I was getting all I could out of this conversation. (They live in Michigan and I am from Canada) She told me all about the trials of the past year, and about her diagnosis and prognosis, ( Hay's is in remission YEAH) we talked like we knew each other forever, once again I was fighting back the tears multiple times during the phone call. I could hear Hayley in the background playing, and as lively as she was at the concert. Katie said she hadn't stopped talking about the concert. She was as shocked as I was about the response to my little post. She had also told me that after school that day Katie went to give blood and Hayley was with her, Katie is trying to teach Hayley about giving back after all she has been given from others. Of course intuitive Hayley needed to know everything about blood, asking where does it go after you donate, where did her blood come from, she needed to know how it all worked. I know now where Hayley gets all the positive energy from, her mother is something else, her family gets dealt this raw hand and you would never know it, she is so positive and strong. So we decided we would stay in touch and we have. I am putting together a photo album for Hayley.

Over a month later it is still a hot post on the fan club and on youtube, I still receive messages about it. So many people made this amazing story happen, the co worker, the bus driver, Carrie, Hayley, the girl who gave the Little Mermaid bag, the fans, the radio, and most of all I think I have fate to thank I am a true believer now. You think your problems are bad and the weight of the world feels like it is on your shoulders, until something like this comes along and happens. You see how courageous Hayley is, happy and positive. You see the way Carrie was with her and how her kindness can impact things. Then suddenly you realize your problems are "So Small" (my other favorite Carrie song), in comparison. I find myself wanting to be a better person, be more positive and helpful. I hope to one day see Hayley again and meet her mother so I can thank them both for the impact they made in my life. I also hope that Carrie will somehow find out about all the good that came from her amazing act of kindness, and that she learns of my deepest appreciation, cause if it had not have been for her none of this would have happened. So thanks to you Carrie.

love_you_carrie · 01-27-2009

I read this last night practically bawling, amazing story! I renewed my membership so I could read this alone.

Thank youuuu!

love_you_carrie · 01-27-2009

1 question I was thinking about while I was in the shower, ahah. You're the Canadian one right? Hayley isn't? So the CW article is wrong on that aspect?

EDIT: Nevermind, I just read the article again and it was you they were talking about. lol