Miracles, Meteors and Magdalene

Deb: This weekend our dear friend Cheryl––whom you met this year when we did a three-way with her––headed with her family to the Stratford Festival in Ontario to see the wonderful Canadian, Broadway-bound production of Jesus Christ Superstar. As it happens, this is the last weekend of the show in Stratford and I, being an official card-carrying member of the “I’m obsessed with all things Jesus Christ Superstar” wanted to see the show before it left Canada. This is the first time in fifteen years my husband and I have not been able to get to Stratford to see shows, missing many wonderful productions featuring, among others, our dear and talented friends.

So I set out to get a single ticket––as Colin was away in the Boston area doing a show (which some of you attended), but I was lucky enough to get, through a lovely friend in the production office, two cancelled tickets. So I asked Barb to come with me. She happily agreed to a wonderful day, which was supposed to consist of a gorgeous two-hour drive, lovely lunch, show, and a peaceful drive home. Or so we thought.

Cut to: Our precious friend and sister Cheryl phoning me last night from Stratford. She was breathless and clearly in pain. She, her husband, and their daughter had been in a horrific car accident, but mercifully, they were alive and functioning.

They were stopped at a traffic light and some guy—who claimed the sun was in his eyes—came barreling into them, knocking them into another car and into the intersection and into yet another car. Their car was totally destroyed, but they came away relatively unscathed. The air bags beat them to a pulp, but ultimately saved their lives. Their daughter was belted and sleeping in the back seat. She woke up, crisis over, to the reek of the air bag gas. Cheryl and Bill were taken to the hospital where they were released in considerable pain, but alive and well ... and as a result ... in the mood for celebration.

The second and tinier miracle was that Barb and I were scheduled to go up the next day to see the final show of Jesus Christ Superstar. Cheryl and Bill of course had no way home and were elated that we were, in a last minute twist of fate, coming right to them! We said that we would chuck the show and simply come up to gather them and their belongings and take them home. Cheryl wouldn’t hear of it. “YOU MUST SEE THIS SHOW!” she said between halting breaths. She insisted that they would simply sleep and chill and gather their resources while we attended the show, which they did.

So we saw the show. And it was a stupendous production. I feel I am authorized to say that given the number of JCSuperstars I have seen on stage and in film. I urge you to see this show on Broadway if you can.

Spent from the production and spent from the wild and challenging events of the last few weeks, we picked them up, took them to the wreck yard, emptied the contents of their shattered car into Barb’s, and said our thanks and farewell to this little gem “Breezy” who had kept them safe these 12 years and held its own right to the end, honouring its owners’ years of appreciation.

We all celebrated the miracle of their survival. It hit me again like a ton of bricks when I saw the car in the scrapyard, broken and finished. We swarmed its broken frame, each of us in our own way giving thanks for their safe escape.

When Barb and I set out to get them, all shaky and full of emotion, we imagined surrounding our car in blue light against impact and then imaged a white light around that one. We always do this when either of us feels any weird or scary energy on the road. Barb said that she had read that there was another huge meteor headed towards earth this week and, although it was not scheduled to hit our green home, it was coming close enough to shake things up, to make unusual and bizarre things happen. True to its word in our corner of the world, it shook our dearest friends to the very foundation of their being and brought my Mom some potentially bad news, all in this one day.

But the real miracle was everyone’s reaction to these events. My Mom rolled with this punch in her can-do way, and even joked about it. Cheryl and her family simply looked at their car, brimming with emotion, but overflowing with thanks and gratitude. No anger. No regret. Just a breath of life sucked into their bruised lungs that told them, despite the searing pain, that they were alive.

Mary Magdalene offered our soundtrack. “Try not to get worried, try not to hang onto problems that upset you, don’t you know, everything’s alright now, everything’s fine, and I want you to sleep well tonight. Let the world turn without you tonight. Close your eyes, close your eyes and forget all about us tonight.”

Barbara: Deb has captured this extraordinary day in all its amazing detail: miracles, meteors and Magdalene, indeed. The last 24 hours have been astounding in their beautiful mayhem. Completely mind-boggling drama, and completely soul-warming communal love. We felt so lucky and calmed to be together and safe on the one hand, and so lucky and stimulated to be able to celebrate creative excellence on the other.

I don’t wish days like these on any of you, but I do wish—given that days like these happen on, well, a daily basis—that you are surrounded by just such love and light. And, more importantly, that you see it. xo