boom boom

You know when you hear a story and it sends tingles down your spine? Well I heard one today and I just have to share it with my blog friends (and stalkers) hee!

My brother Austin is an amazing young man. He turns 21 this winter and is at NYU studying musical theatre. My Mom had him when I was 17 years old. He is the baby in the family and was pretty much raised as an only child there was such a huge age gap between he and my brothers and I.

Because of that he spent tons of time with my Grandparents. Austin had an incredible relationship with my Grandma on my Dad's side.

We all did. But when we were all off at college and in school. Austin and Grandma developed a deep awesome friendship. They would go to the park. He would call her and ask her if he could sleep over at her house. She was an amazing woman with a thick German accent and a heart of gold. She loved him so much. Austin and Grandma could talk for hours. She would take him around at the age of 8 or 9 and he was so proud of her. He had Grandma's heart. She would take him to concerts, ballets and the theatre. She had a huge passion for it. She loved Pavarati, Placido Domingo and lot of other Opera singers. She even subscribed to Opera magazine. She never played an instrument or sang herself but she had a passion for music and theatre.

She always had tic tacs in her purse and coffee candy in a glass dish in her living room. Austin would always ask her for a tic tac.. he LOVED them with her. He referred to them as BOOM BOOM's. We would all laugh because whenever he saw Grandma he would immediatly head for her purse to get the boom boom or ask for it politely. Grandma passed away before we moved to Colorado.

Well Austin is now in New York studying musical theatre which is so cool. I always think about how proud she would be of him. He loves it. He is great at what he does and he has a good perspective on it too. When he was home this summer he heard the opera singer Andrea Bocelli was going to sing at Carnegie Hall. Austin wanted to go very badly. He told me the tickets were really really expensive and on a college student's budget he couldn't afford it. My Dad knew about Austin's desire to go to Carnegie Hall and told him that after thinking about it for quite a while he wanted to pay for his ticket to see him. Really good seats like 40 ft away from him. He said if he didn't pay for it... Grandma would have been really mad. So he paid for the ticket.

Austin went to the concert at Carnegie Hall the other night. Here's the cool part. I was saying how Grandma was probably with him as a guardian angel that night. Watching over him... enjoying it with him. He said that when he arrived he sat next to three older ladies. Two of them were in their 50's and one of them just turned 100years old. He sat next to the lady who was 100. He said that she looked and smelled like Grandma. Then he said, right before the show started... the older lady without saying anything really to him.... reached into her purse and asked him if he wanted a tic tac. He told me at that moment he said a prayer and thanked God for having "Grandma" with him that night. God is so good. He knows exactly what we need when we need it. And I believe he knew my brother needed a touch from the Lord and an awesome memory of my Grandma delivered to him and he got it... at Carnegie Hall listening to Andrea Bocelli...eating a tic tac.