A Little Disney Magic…

Spoiler alert: We are not taking a trip to Disney World… but something magical happened today at Disney. And I’m so grateful.

OK, so most of you know Randy had his heart attack on August 22. Just one week later, he was scheduled to go to Colorado to hunt elk, mule deer, and bear with my teenaged son and our cousin, who’s more like a son to us.

I will be forever grateful that God allowed my husband to have a heart attack a few miles from Temple Texas (and the Scott & White ECMO and Cardiac team), instead of in the mountains of Colorado with my 15-year-old. My sweet boy would’ve carried the guilt of his daddy dying in his arms, the rest of his life. And Randy would have died in those woods. They could not have made it out.

What most of you don’t know is that I had planned a “tit-for-tat” trip to Disney World the following month, with my sister Amber and my brother Doug. Seven days, my friends. And no kiddos.❤️ I had already bought our tickets.

When this whole thing went down, I was too out of my mind to do much in the way of rearranging the plans in an intelligible way. $1200 of park tickets were at risk, as they expire when you’ve chosen a date, and they go unused. To make matters more difficult, I had purchased them from a third party vendor. I did manage to make a phone call to WDW back then, but I didn’t get anyone’s name, and I didn’t write down what they promised me…which was something about how they could be worth their face value toward another ticket when I was ready to take the trip later.

Fast forward to this month. Anyone who knows my sweet brother, and his Autism-Aspergers, knows that it’s hard for him to plan a trip to Walt Disney World and not get to take it. (Shoot..that’s hard on ME!) I’ve been joking with Randy ever since his injury that I’m going to take him with me to Disney World (his least favorite place on earth), because since he’s in a wheelchair I would have automatic fast passes to every ride.😉

My mom and dad have been planning to finally take the promised trip soon, to make it up to the poor guy. I gave dad the three tickets in hopes they’d be worth something, even though said tickets had already been assigned to my sister and me, and they are generally not transferrable. After a lot of effort on Dad’s part, he was told they were unusable. Expired. It was as if the tickets were non-existent to both the vendor (Undercover Tourist), and to Disney. Their $1200 value vaporized.

Now, in case you don’t know my dad, he’s always courteous and kind. Never rude, even on the phone, and even to strangers or under duress. You can be certain that even though no-one seemed to be able to help, he would have kept his cool and shown respect and cordiality. This is key to what happened next.

In a last ditch effort, Dad shared the backstory of our tragedy, and why we had missed the September Disney trip we’d been so excited to take. A fabulous cast member at WDW ticketing (in a specialist department) named Camilynn spent an hour on the phone with my dad. After pulling a lot of strings, she was able to change the expiration date of the tickets, reassign/ transfer them into my parent’s names, and re-activate them!

Before parting, dad explained that now he could pay ME for the tickets, and that Camilynn had helped put groceries on my table for a couple of months. There was silence on the other end of the line. And maybe a sniffle.

I am thankful to God, who continues to look out for and provide for my family. Thank you, Camilynn, for making some Disney magic for me today! Maybe it’s still true that all you need is faith, trust, pixie dust, (and some hard work from my Dad) to make dreams come true!

Blessings, y’all! And, Doug, kiss Mickey for me!